Congressional Republicans Are In Thrall To Trump, And The result Will Be That The Entire Country Will Be Turned Into The Failed State Of Kansas
....Unlike in the past, these tax cuts are extremely unpopular. According to FiveThirtyEight's Harry Enten, this bill is more unpopular than most tax hike bills are. Why? Because everyone knows it's a giveaway to the rich at the expense of the middle class. The GOP Congress could take its time and fashion a bill where the numbers add up. That could at least pass muster with most Republican voters. So why are they in such a frenzy to pass this monstrosity?
It's hard to know. It's almost as if congressional Republicans are on autopilot, unable to exercise free will. Many of them, like Moran of Kansas, know very well that this plan is an utter disaster that will result in higher taxes for everyone but the top 1 percent, along with the degradation of important programs like Medicare, all of which will be used against them in upcoming elections. If I had to guess, I'd say they are simply mesmerized by what Trump has been able to do.
All week long we've been reading stories about how he is creating his own reality, unmoored from facts and truth. People are whispering about the 25th Amendment and wondering if the president of the United States might actually have a breakdown. But these GOP officials watched Trump give a speech in Missouri on Wednesday, where the crowd cheered wildly while he claimed that his plan has wealthy people like himself complaining about having their taxes increased so ordinary people can have a big tax cut.
Republican senators all know that's a brazen lie. It is literally the opposite of the truth. But they see those Trump voters believing every word he says, and they understand that the truth is now irrelevant to the Republican base. All Trump's supporters want is to see their hero win. If he loses yet again because the Republican Congress fails to deliver a bill for him to sign, members of that Congress know there will be hell to pay.
Republicans are happy to pass a tax cut, of course. It's what they live for. But this is a Kansas-level economic debacle in the making, and they are not stupid enough not to understand that. They're betting that their seats are safer if they go along with Trump's magical thinking than if they stay in the real world. After all, the Republicans have been lying almost as much as Trump -- about almost as many things -- for a long time. This time they've decided to hold their collective breath and dive down the rabbit hole with him. Maybe some of that Trump Teflon will rub off on them.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2017/11/trump-delusional-sure-but-so-is-whole.html
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Krugman had a good explanation last week. Maybe Republicans know they're fucked, that there's no way they're going to survive the '18 midterms... so they're slamming through everything their donors are requiring of them.
Once they've passed their laws, the filibuster shoe will be on the Dems' feet. Repealing will be very hard, since those donors will still be there.