The Great Smoky Mountain Journal

Staff Reports

Posted: Sunday, January 21, 2018 07:29 PM

OUR VIEW:  With No Democrats Voting For Tax Reform It Seems The Party Of The Jackass Loves Political Suicide

Democrats have knowingly lied that the reform effort will hurt middle-class Americans, earning an unusual dressing-down from the Washington Post, which has aggressively flayed individual Republicans who support the bill.

The New York Times, in one last death rattle fit of umbrage, declared in an editorial that there was “cynicism and mendacity underlying the Republican tax bill.” The newspaper also published another outrage special from columnist Paul Krugman, who suspects that Republicans are supporting the legislation because it is “good for them personally” and ran a lengthy piece on how the bill would significantly burden the Internal Revenue Service. As though we care.

I spoke with our first district Congressman Dr. Phil Roe (R-TN) twice in the past week and a half about the tax reform bill, and his enthusiasm alone for the bill tells me we are on solid ground here. Congressman Roe says every single American will benefit something from this first true overhaul to our tax system since 1986. When you have 170,000 pages go to 1,400 pages we're making great progress.

Roe says every one should be excited as to what is going to be under the Christmas tree from Washington D.C. this year and get ready to see our economy explode on so many levels in 2018.

Let’s be honest: the GOP tax plan is the Democrats’ worst nightmare.

After a year of “resistance” against a duly elected president, stalling on Cabinet confirmations, slow-walking the exodus of Obama appointees, issuing purposefully damaging and often untruthful rumors about connections between the Trump campaign and Russia, attacking each and every initiative of the incoming administration, wailing about Congress moving forward on a partisan basis (as though Obama Care didn’t follow the same path), threatening impeachment, and detailing gleefully every misstep and foolish tweet made by President Trump, Democrats are about to face an emboldened adversary.

They about to get a bold and rude wake up call and to be honest I'm damn happy and gleeful about it.

Republicans and President Trump should be proud of their record of accomplishment, a year of stunning stock market gains, and a reviving economy that may accelerate through 2018, powered in part by the tax plan.

Democrats are banking on suburban women and other groups to take back the House next fall. How will that happen when Americans are feeling more upbeat and flush than they have in a decade? And when the Trump White House, with its GOP allies, has the tax bill to credit for at least some of the prosperity? Remember: it’s all about the economy, stupid. Amazing how that term is used a lot when talking about Washington politicians. As  George Patton once famously said, politicians are the lowest scum on earth and Democrats are lower than scum. Preach it George!

Throughout this past year, Democrats and elites have mocked President Trump for rookie mistakes, sneered at his exaggerations, and expressed horror when he followed through on campaign pledges, such as bowing out of the Paris Climate Agreement and confronting North Korea.

But the Democrats’ most telling and harmful critique was that President Trump, a political neophyte, was not able to deliver. They claimed his inexperienced team was ill-equipped to carry out his agenda, and they were not entirely wrong; the ill-fated ban on immigrants from Muslim countries comes to mind. More damaging, Democrats also said that because of candidate Trump’s toxic behavior during the primaries, he had so alienated fellow Republicans that he would never get Congress to enact his agenda. So much for that.

For a few months, as Congress unwisely chose to attack ObamaCare first, it looked like the critics were right. The repeated failures to ditch ObamaCare, and the grandiose obstructionist gestures by spurned rivals like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., were mortifying. Democrats smelled blood in the water; if the GOP could not unite around their signature issue, they said, Republicans couldn’t do anything, and would be sent packing.

They were wrong. The GOP – led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. – moved forward with renewed vigor on tax reform.

Unlike the ObamaCare effort, this push included the White House. For many months the Gang of Six worked feverishly towards a tax bill that would make U.S. businesses competitive again and lower taxes for most Americans. That’s what this final bill does. That’s what Democrats are worried about.

When America does well, Democrats are sad. When America is getting her teeth kicked in, Democrats quietly applause. Every moment these NFL types knelt for the national anthem over the past several months, the Democrats have been in spirit kneeling right along side them. Their party symbol of the jackass is more than accurate.

The liberal mainstream media have accomplished something astounding: 47 percent of Americans don’t like the tax bill, according to a recent poll conducted by Monmouth University. Even though, according to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, some 80 percent of the country will get a tax cut and only 5 percent (largely high-income folks in blue states) will see their taxes rise.

That’s what a persistent and misleading campaign of misinformation will do. Roe said that in 1986 President Reagan's tax cut had an 18% approval rating and we see what that meant. President Trump actually has a better approval rating on his tax reform than the Gipper. Fake news has been alive and well for many decades it seems.

But here’s what should worry Democrats; that poll indicates that the public’s dislike of the bill is because they don’t really think their taxes will go down.

What happens when they find out that Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who called the bill a “punch in the gut for the middle class,” or House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, R-Calif., who has called the bill a “scam” and “Armageddon,” are lying to them?

As people fill out their tax forms next year, and see that the expanded child tax credit, doubled standard deduction, and lower rates put more money in their pocket, who will they rejoice with? The jackasses and the liars or the ones who put green in their wallets. You do the math.

The liberal media has also scoffed at the notion that lower taxes could inspire businesses to increase investment and hiring. I heard the CEO of a cement company interviewed the other day on Bloomberg; the reporter was openly hostile to the manager’s claims that yes, he would be expanding as a result of the proposed tax changes.

Almost 95 percent of those responding to a recent National Association of Manufacturers poll said they were optimistic about their prospects – an all-time record.

More than 60 percent said the tax overhaul would likely lead them to invest more. As businesses gear up hiring and investing in new plants and equipment, won’t people feel even better about their job prospects?

Call me crazy, but it seems the Democrats committed personal suicide by not supporting the tax bill. Roe expressed disappointment in their defiance saying he felt it was about the decade old Democratic ideal that government, not the people, need to be in control of their money. The government cannot control their own money. They sure as hell don't need to be messing with ours!

Even West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin tried to blame President Trump's unwillingness to compromise for his reason to vote no. Joe, Joe, Joe, there's not going to be any Ho, Ho, Ho, in your stocking this year in coal country. Dumb move amigo.  If you want to go down with the Titanic then go down with them. You could have helped the people of West Virginia with a yes vote. You chose not to and instead acted like a Democrat.

So, on this historic day for America let's applaud the Trump White House, the Republicans, and make sure we remember come November 2018 who was there for us as tax payers and who was not. Those who love freedom and true capitalism will rejoice today. Those who hate capitalism will be angry, bitter, and mad. The Democrats hate this bill because they know in the deepest part of their sick and dark hearts, this is a great day for the American people.

That’s Armageddon for the party of the jackass.

Christopher McDonald, Publisher, Editor in Charge

Great Smoky Mountain Journal