What if the Republicans don't really don't care if Congress passes their massive tax cut for the 1%? What if there is a more sinister plot afoot? Conspiracy, no, just the long game of the partisan Republicans.
After all, what political benefit do they think they can gain from passing this massive giveaway to the richest Americans? Public opinion is running 2 to 1 against the bill, and that's before most falks have seen how horrible it really is. Even the stupidest Republican Congressman (well maybe not the stupidest, for example my Congressman) has to realize that this bill will NOT result in increased investment and significant economic growth no matter how much smoke and mirrors they use to sell it.
It doesn't take a Wharton School economics degree to understand that if you keep taking from the middle class and the poor to enrich the 1%, sooner or later almost everyone is going to be maxed out on their credit cards and pay day loans. What happens then in an economy that is based on mass consumption?
I would think that passing this bill, along with the repeal of the ACA, would be tantmount to political suicide. Maybe they actually hope against hope that it will not pass. So why all the fuss?
Part of it undoubtly has to do with appeasing the basest of their base. "Look, we tried to carry out our promises, but the damn Democrats and a few RINOs prevented our success."
But I think there maybe another way they could use the failure to pass this and other reactionary legislation. If you analyze the basic partisan game plan they've been playing for the past 30+ years, the pattern that emerges is simple. For the Republicans to remain in power, they have to surpress the vote.
It has long been accepted that Democrats benefit from large turnouts at the polls and that current demographic trends are highly favorable to the Democrats' electoral chances. The solution, as far as Republicans are concerned, is to keep people from voting, by any means necessary. Voter ID laws, purging voter rolls, cutting down on early voting days and locations, keeping immigrants from attaining citizenship status, gerrymandering and so on are on the agenda of Republicans from the national down to the local levels.
But there is another method of surpressing the vote that can give them more bang for the buck. That is convincing large numbers of voters that the government can't do anything right. It's why having a incompetent narcisist as President doesn't bother them at all. It's why the level of corruption in the Trump administration doesn't bother them at all. And it is why, not being able to pass landmark legislation doesn't really bother them.
Whether out of power or in power, gridlock benefits the Republican ideologues. Cynicism is their greatist ally. And 2017 has been a banner year for that, despite the efforts of the resistance across the country. Combatting that cynicism is the most important task confronting us in the next 11 months.
