Throughout the entire process last year of the GOP pushing its tax reform bill through Congress, party leaders insisted that it would help the middle-class and lower-middle class. It would definitely put more money in people’s pockets and give them some relief from the crippling amounts of taxes that come out of their paycheck each week. Republicans dutifully recited talking points like those on cable news shows and to their constituents despite mounting evidence and subsequent opposition from economists, voters, and others who kept pointing out that everybody saw right through the tax plan for what it was: a way to cut taxes for the super-rich and make them even richer.
One man to blame: weaselly Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. Here’s a guy who once relied on public assistance and yet also said he’d been dreaming of destroying the welfare state since college, talking until he was blue in the face about how the GOP tax plan would help average, work-a-day Americans. Was he delusional or a liar? We all assumed liar, but maybe it was more that he really believed he was doing good. Evidence: Yesterday he tweeted about a story that supposedly happened in which a woman who worked as secretary at a high school found out just how much more money she’d see in her check asa result of the the GOP tax scheme: a buck fifty a week. He proudly proclaimed that as a win with a complete and on-character lack of self-awareness.
Okay, so an extra $78 is nice, but maybe not when other people are getting millions if not billions, and also you don’t get the whole $78 right away. A Costco membership is useless if you can’t buy anything at Costco.