Vox‘s Emily Stewart spends a lot of time speculating on why this tax change bill was rushed so quickly through Congress. This particular quote is an epic shrug of the shoulders:
“This was manufactured urgency,” said Joseph Thorndike, a tax historian and director of the Tax History Project. “There was nothing urgent about this at all, not even the reconciliation instructions required this kind of urgency. The urgency here was completely willful.”
Nowhere in the article do they touch on recent history, which I believe invalidates Mr. Thorndike’s remark.
That history?
Think the last failed Republican endeavour, the AHCA. Remember the townhall meetings which humiliated and pressured Republican Representatives and Senators? For this tax bill, the Republicans learned that even their thumb-puppets could bend and break; and when they didn’t, they tended to look like fools. Remember Rep. Paul Labrador (R-ID)?
“You are mandating people on Medicaid accept dying,” one audience member said.
To which Labrador responded, “No no, you know that line is so indefensible. Nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care.” [Politifact, and the article goes into more detail on how Labrador defended his remark.]
It made the Republican, and his Party, look like idiots. The Republicans learned their lesson and took away the opportunity for public pressure to interfere with their sordid plans.
That’s the entire reason, in my view. Knowing the demographics are against you, you remove them from the equation. Now the Republicans can rejoice in that, reportedly, their rich donors who desired this tax bill will continue to fund their election efforts.
No matter how wretched and manipulated this bill might be.
Let’s hope the Trump Recession doesn’t come spilling out of it and hurt a whole lot of poor people. While there’d be a silver lining and I personally wouldn’t be hurt, it’d be very rough for the working poor, those hanging on by their fingernails.
