The Tax Bill Might End Trump's "Populist Street Cred." Ya Think?

Turns out the last version of the bill is a giveaway -- as if it wasn't before -- to real-estate developers and limited partnerships, which is how a key vote, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, was bought and paid for.

We're going to see quite a few of these "this tax bill really sucks for the poor and middle class" articles before the bought-and-paid-for senators pass it.

Bloomberg News reported this morning that the conference committee added a complicated provision late in the process that will provide a multimillion-dollar windfall to real estate investors such as Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner: “The change, which would allow real estate businesses to take advantage of a new tax break that’s planned for partnerships, limited liability companies and other so-called ‘pass-through’ businesses, combined elements of House and Senate legislation in a new way. … James Repetti, a tax law professor at Boston College Law School, said: ‘This is a windfall for real estate developers like Trump.’

“The revision might also bring tax benefits to several members of Congress, according to financial disclosures they’ve filed that reflect ownership of pass-through firms with real estate holdings,” per Lynnley Browning and Benjamin Bain. “One such lawmaker, Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, who’d voted against an earlier version of the legislation, said on Friday that he would support the revised legislation. Corker said in an interview on Saturday that his change of heart had nothing to do with the added benefit for real estate investors.

So now we know why "deficit hawk" Bob Corker changed to "yes" out of the blue. Susan Collins of Maine has agreed to vote yes in exchange for protections for Obamacare subsidies that the House has already telegraphed "no fucking way," and Jeff Flake of Arizona had held out for Dreamer protections that they've promised him to get his vote, even though he'll run into the same "fuck you, please" Susan Collins will get.

And brave, maverick John McCain because he's dying gets to head back to Arizona ahead of the vote, so he's off the hook. He'll be accorded "not my fault" status even as the Senate is avoiding "regular order" -- the civilized process of examining and crafting bills -- that he railed about during the earlier Obamacare repeal votes that failed in the end because of his startling "no" vote. Sorry, McCain, but your cancer doesn't cancel out you role in this debacle. Besides, you'd already said you'd vote for it, so destiny meet legacy. McCain's last stand was to skip out. I'll remember it even if others want to say "he's dying, let him off the hook." I say he's dying, and this is how he goes out. Sorry.

So tax cuts for the rich and bad times in store for the poor and middle class are headed our way thanks to A COMPLETE SELLOUT TO THE RICH IN EXCHANGE FOR DONATIONS IN THE 2018 ELECTION CYCLE.

This is how we lose our democracy to plutocracy, in case you haven't thought of that. By the way, the chart above shows that American voters already have mostly figured this out. Do Republicans hope they get enough money from the donors to mitigate the effects of the disaster they've perpetrated on the citizenry? Yes, I guess they do. Fuckers.