Fwd: Tax fraud alert in the Senate

What a ridiculous mess the GOP tax fraud bill is!  Take a look at all this last-minute scribbling in the margins as the Republicans desperately try to put any kind of sense in it -- and are failing.  But they are all committed to passing it, no matter how bad it turns out to be, even though NO ONE really knows what the hell it is--some of the scribbling is completely illegible! It's a zombie-fied mess that should be thrown on the trash pile.  And this is the low place we have sunk to in what we call "representation" and "legislation."   The Republican party is as good as dead, with the last nails in its coffin being hammered in by Trump and Tribe, yet like a zombie it keeps rising with more horrors to perpetrate on WE, the people.  God help us all! 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ryan Grim <info@actionnetwork.org>
Date: Fri, Dec 1, 2017 at 7:16 PM
Subject: Tax fraud alert in the Senate
To: eileen@starwisdom.net

People often joke about Republicans that they believe government doesn't work, and when they take power, they set out to prove it. Man, has that never been more true than tonight, as Senate Republicans are literally scribbling tax law into the margins of a document and rushing it through. They plan to vote any minute, and they didn't even try to find somebody in the office with good handwriting. No, really: Say what you will, at least Republicans have been honest about why they feel so much pressure to get this done. Here are three actual quotes: Colorado Senator Cory Gardner: "Donors are furious" New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins: "My donors are basically saying: 'Get it done or don't ever call me again.'" South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham: "The financial contributions will stop." This bill gets talked about in the press as a $1.5 trillion tax cut. It's not. It is, broadly speaking, a $6 trillion tax cut for some people paid for by a $4.5 trillion tax hike on other people. That makes it the biggest tax hike in American history. (Republicans spent years calling Obamacare the biggest tax increase in U.S. history because it raised about $800 billion in taxes. This blows that out of the water.) Here's my story laying out the numbers to make the case. But the GOP has a list of more than a hundred economists who say that it's a great idea! The Intercept's Lee Fang took a closer look at the list and found it was populated by ghosts, cranks, office assistants, an ex-felon (not that there's anything wrong with that) and a lot of retired economists who were claiming to still be working. His story is here. If you want to take a break from watching C-Span as they inch toward passing this stack of paper, here's an interview I did with TYT's Ana Kasparian on the tax bill. You're getting this email because you either signed up for it or you took a survey and opted in to this newsletter -- or, probably, you declined to opt out. Either way, I hope you're enjoying it. I'm the Washington bureau chief at The Intercept, and I send this several times a week. If you see an ad here, it's there because sending mass emails turns out to be really expensive. I'm not making any money off of it; it goes to the email service provider and just defrays the cost a bit. If you want to contribute directly to help keep the thing running, you can do so here, though be warned a donation comes with no tote bags or extra premium content or anything. Or you can buy a copy of Out of the Ooze: The Story of Dr. Tom Price, the first book put out by Strong Arm Press, a small progressive publishing house I cofounded. If somebody forwarded you this note, you can sign up to start getting your own copy here. Sent via ActionNetwork.org. To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from Bad News, please click here.