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Thursday, November 30, 2017

Call grandma! Republicans openly say tax-scam bill is path to gutting Social Security/Medicare.



Social Security cards with cash and benefit amount numbers
First up is Marco Rubio, who said out loud what was supposed to be hush-hush.

Glenn Kessler @GlennKesslerWP
Hmmm, Marco Rubio says that the tax plan is just the first step before "instituting structural changes to Social Security and Medicare" benefits to reduce the federal deficit. https://www.fa-mag.com/news/rubio--offset-tax-cuts-by-reducing-social-security--medicare-benefits-35928.html 
 
So that should settle one question, Rubio is better behaved than Trump (though not above a penis-joke or two on TV), would have had the same policy priorities. Like all the others, he wants to literally take heat and food away from poor kids and seniors so a few thousand extremely wealthy families can apply more gilt to their gaudy mansions.

Republicans in the House are rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of destroying Social Security and Medicare too.  Ways and Means chair Kevin Brady recently said he wants to do welfare reform after the tax bill.

It’s been pretty clear for years that many Republicans have decided they will cut taxes to create a fiscal crisis and then use that as an excuse to undermine Social Security and Medicare. Their plan is to use duplicitous “concerns” about debt to destroy all the New Deal programs.

And then of course, there’s the man who can’t keep his mouth shut, the president himself. Trump is openly talking about moving on to taking away one of the final guaranteed protections for workers by destroying Social Security and Medicare.

So call your grandparents, and tell them the Republicans want to go after their earned Social Security and Medicare.

Then call your senator and representative, and anyone else you can. If your rep/senator is a Republican, tell them if they mess with Social Security and Medicare, they can expect to be voted out and their cushy revolving doors shut for good. Tell them we won’t let them sacrifice our security so they can please their billionaire masters.

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

GEORGE TEMPLETON: Christmas reminds us of difference between what we are and wish to be

 GEORGE TEMPLETON  

       COMMENTARY       
By George Templeton
Gazette Columnist

Seasons Thinking
“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”  Soren Kierkegaard
The New Normal
Thank goodness, Trump has at long last given us permission to say “Merry Christmas”.  Exactly what does he mean?  Do you suppose it would even the score if we said “Islamic Terrorism” and “Happy Holidays”?  We should remember that vagueness is a tool that can be used by politicians to build unjustified charisma.
Is Trump trying to divide us and demonize people that don’t say it?  Is he trying to suggest that his tribe is compassionate and that if you don’t say Merry Christmas you belong to a ruthless and agnostic clan?
Is he trying to justify and promote his ethic of “telling it like it is” by arguing against political correctness?  Humility is not as powerful a motivator as fear and greed.
Are we worried that we might offend someone? Are we trying to force our beliefs on others?  Will loyal followers be obliged to say Merry Christmas because it has particular religious connotations?  Do we want a separation of church and state?  Does our religious freedom require official proselytization?
Trump apologists explain that he is really no different than Obama and Clinton.  Obama deported illegal aliens and Clinton would have a fence.  It is a utilitarian view of morality, John Stuart Mill’s “greatest good for the greatest number”.  But “Good” is qualitative.  It cannot be easily measured or counted.
It is in the instruction that people should vote Republican in the December Alabama election.  The argument is that a Democrat can’t be good for Alabama.  That is the justification for electing a possible pedophile whose moral character and respect for our Constitution is not beyond reproach.
Numbers don’t characterize our feelings about these things.
Scientific
The science section is at the end of Google news.  What it discusses is not science.  Real science requires an understanding of math, experimental design, and the role of evidence.  It is about numbers, equations, and statistics.  Sometimes things just happen by chance.  Sometimes there is a cause.  We need to be taught how to tell the difference.  Studies don’t show and things are not linked.  What seems different isn’t.  What seems important is not.  Are the results lasting?  Only time will tell.  We need to learn how to distinguish between science, business, religion, and politics.
Most people do not live in a scientific world.  Their world is aesthetic and emotional.  The scientific method is poorly suited to understanding human nature.  Individuals are not universal like the laws of physics.
Meaning is incomplete until a thing is finished.  Old folks give us perspective to see how seemingly slow changes add up to create a very different image.  Like a work of art, it is concrete only when it is finished.  Then it becomes eternal and transcendent.  New things can be discovered in antiquity and old things in the new.  There are few discoveries that are completely original.  Personal and social circumstances change.
It is a mistake to read the bible thinking that our perspective has not changed.  We know that the universe is more than lights in the sky.  To cast demons into a herd of swine, causing them to commit suicide in the sea, was a stunt worthy of the God of thousands of years ago.  Today we might expect a more impressive demonstration.
Convictions
Freshman college students used to be required to read Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855).   He was serious, melancholy, and solitary.  To him, it seemed that rationality got in the way of choosing, deciding, and making demanding individual commitments.
Trying to figure out where Kierkegaard was coming from was difficult.  He wrote, “… without understanding spirit it is impossible to understand despair… the dearest and most attractive dwelling-place of despair is in the very heart of immediate happiness.”   It meant being honest about self-contradiction.  We experience this when we are simultaneously happy that a loved one’s suffering has ended but sad about our own loss.  More universal and fundamental are our subconscious “monsters from the Id” that were portrayed in the 1956 science fiction film, Forbidden Planet.  According to Sigmund Freud, (1856-1939) they are part of our split personality, one that divides between conscience, rationality, and a primitive brute that says, “I want it all and I demand it now”.
Young students need to be challenged!  At their age, Kierkegaard’s The Sickness unto Death is not interesting.  Are they suffering from despair when they check their smart phones every four minutes?  Someone or something might be trying to get in touch with them!  They are anxious, but don’t realize it.  Their smart phone can help self-realization or it can be an escape from that.  Solitude helps one to find truth.
Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling concerned the Biblical story of Abraham.  He admired Abraham’s faith because it made no excuse and was free from rationalization.  In contrast to the culture he lived in, Kierkegaard found God to be mysterious and hard to understand.  Abraham, who was the only one hearing God’s command to sacrifice his beloved son, was curiously the supreme example of faith.  How did his son feel after he discovered his dad intended to kill him?
The Hebrew Bible’s Book of Job describes the problem of pain and suffering.  Surprisingly, Job does not become disappointed or unfaithful even though he suffers in despair.  In the end, Job receives the reply from God that he had wished for, but it consists of questions that he cannot answer.  If we are not careful, we will get both what we want and what we fear.  
Students could conclude that Kierkegaard was a Christian.  He thought that faith was too superficial, too easy, and too universally accepted in the culture of his time.  Faith was only an opinion.  There was no need for real faith.  He wanted to make it authentic and that meant more difficult, but he believed in life’s subjective truth and in facts that could not be confirmed.  Kierkegaard needed to accept the absurd to traverse the chasm separating man from God.  For many, that is no longer a requirement.  Passionate faith is their intent, but a belief in everything is faith in nothing. 
They could conjecture that Kierkegaard was trying to become a Christian and having difficulty in making the “leap of faith”.   God created man because he needed one smaller, weaker, and dumber than himself.  When God became less easily knowable mankind was isolated and alone.  The consequence was that man became responsible for making his life what it would be. 
Hard core American religion cannot countenance this, because they “just believe”.  They have their Elmer Gantry (Sinclair Lewis 1927 novel and 1960 film).   Roy Moore hears God’s word so clearly that he took it upon himself to write his Legal Theory of God’s Supremacy.  He has a religion of his law, instead of a celebration of life.
David Hume explained, “A wise man … proportions his belief to the evidence.”  The objective truth is that Moore, twice removed from the Alabama Supreme Court, is an unyielding extremist who does not compromise.  For only one to be right, everybody else has to be wrong.  
It’s Biblical!  Adlai Stevenson, the 1952 Democratic Presidential nominee, would not be elected because of his divorce.  But the Bible also claims that disrespectful children should be stoned to death or mauled by bears.  Elmer’s religion says that only Christians are allowed to engage in the prayers that he wants before public and government meetings.  But it’s prayer first, and then effort to make it happen.  There is a risk of planning the answer and not being open to developments.
The Season
The season used to start after thanksgiving.  Does it need a three month binge?  Commercialism has made Christmas materialistic.  Poverty does not exist without need, but what is necessary?    The poorest man is not the one who owns the least.
Christmas has been a secular holiday since the time of Queen Victoria and the rise of the commercial age.  It needed an excuse.  That was provided by Christianity.  Now, aggressive marketing sees no need for excuses.  Computers that used to be mind amplifiers have become entertainment devices.  They have the same advertisements that interrupt television programs.  You are not taking the initiative.  That has been left to programmers and big data about you.  They have a deal for you.
God Said
Christmas can be criticized because of its pagan roots, but today it is in literature, folklore, poetry, and the Santa Claus myth.  It is in charity, peace, good will, and gifts for children.  It is in drunken parties, time off, the celebration of life’s meaning, and the birth of Christ.
There are many religions in America.  All of them are explanations for the meaning of life deserving of respect.  Like Santa Claus, none of them are accurate in every detail, but they have continued through the millennia because of the truth of their message.
America will continue to grow less white, Anglo-Saxon, and protestant.  Other cultures will continue to have festivals.  Many are already assimilated into America, one that we have all created.  They make our lives interesting.  However, life is not just something to be studied.  It is to be lived.  Christmas reminds us about the tension between what we are and what we wish to be.  That is important.

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Trump now denies 'grab 'em by the pussy' recording was him, because that's how big a liar he is



US President Donald Trump delivers a speech at the opening of a welcome dinner hosted by Abe at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo on November 6, 2017..Donald Trump described North Korea's nuclear missile programme as a "threat" to the world on a trip to Asia dominated by the crisis. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / Shizuo Kambayashi        (Photo credit should read SHIZUO KAMBAYASHI/AFP/Getty Images)
President Pussygrabber demonstrates his move.
Donald Trump once admitted to something that was not so great, because he was on tape bragging about it. A year later, the consummate liar has changed his mind.

The Access Hollywood tape of Trump saying, among other things, that his approach to women is “Grab ‘em by the pussy,” he now says, may not be him after all—and it’s influencing his defense of Alabama Republican Roy Moore’s history of molesting and assaulting teen girls:
He sees the calls for Mr. Moore to step aside as a version of the response to the now-famous “Access Hollywood” tape, in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitalia, and the flood of groping accusations against him that followed soon after. He suggested to a senator earlier this year that it was not authentic, and repeated that claim to an adviser more recently. (In the hours after it was revealed in October 2016, Mr. Trump acknowledged that the voice was his, and he apologized.)
There is a recording. Which Trump has admitted was him, though he downplayed the reality of what he was recording saying. But now … time has passed, it’s inconvenient to remember that it was really him … truth is a very flexible concept with this guy.

Donald Trump has always said that he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and not lose his supporters. Now we know that the aftermath of the shooting would be Trump admitting it, then months later starting to privately tell people that it wasn’t him.

Monday, November 27, 2017

Donald Trump lied about Time's 'Person of the Year' because he is a sad pathetic lying garbage fire



WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 02: Flanked by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), President Donald Trump speaks about tax reform legislation in the Cabinet Room at the White House, November 2, 2017 in Washington, DC. On Thursday, Republican lawmakers unveiled their plans for a massive rewrite of the U.S. tax code. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Ha ha, it's so funny that an unbalanced compulsive liar is in charge of our country.


In case you missed it, Donald Trump spent his Thanksgiving holiday doing the things Donald Trump does. He went to his privately owned, for-profit club, because of course he did. He played golf, because of course he did. And he flagrantly lied about easily checkable facts that were indeed easily checked, because he is an unstable, narcissistic idiot with the brainpower of one-half of one of those turkeys he just pardoned, a malevolent tiny-fingered garbage fire of a human being who, if America was just slightly less enamored of the idea of putting moron aristocrats in charge of things, would probably have ended up either in jail for fraud or in a police report after he stuck his tongue in a toaster to try to tan it golden-brown. 

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Time Magazine called to say that I was PROBABLY going to be named “Man (Person) of the Year,” like last year, but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!

It was left to the people actually in charge of such things to explain to both the compulsive liar and the nation currently pressed under his stubby thumb that no, that is not how this works. That is not, according to both Time itself and its editor, how any of this works.

Alan Murray @alansmurray
Amazing. Not a speck of truth here—Trump tweets he 'took a pass' at being named TIME's person of the year http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/24/pol 

Trump, who is clearly either dishonest or simply batshit insane, take-your-pick, has been obsessed with the magazine’s annual award for years. He famously displayed a fake mock-up of himself on a Time cover as if it were real. He appears to have absolutely no awareness of how mercilessly he his mocked, worldwide, for his bizarre, delusional claims.

As a reminder, there is absolutely no need to treat this gibbering, tantrum-prone fart-in-a-suit with even the slightest trace of respect. He is dumb, unstable, and apparently incapable of truthful speech. The goal of every American should be to treat him like garbage, if for no other reason than to make the much-needed point to the rest of our leaders that there is indeed a limit to how monstrous and cretinous a person you are allowed to be, in office—a warning, to the rest of our politicians, that down this road of constant crookery and bullshit lies nothing but tar and feathers and an eventual grave surrounded by a high iron fence to discourage passersby from taking empty, petty revenge on it years and decades later.

Sunday, November 26, 2017

Cartoon: Let us pray


Why These 8 States Could Soon Form the 'Great American Desert'

Corn farms in Elgin Nebraska, on the eastern edge of the Ogallala aquifer. (photo: Spirit of America/Flickr)
Corn farms in Elgin Nebraska, on the eastern edge of the Ogallala aquifer. (photo: Spirit of America/Flickr)

By David Leestma, EcoWatch
22 November 17
readersupportednews.org
 
ne of the world's largest underground bodies of fresh water—the Ogallala aquifer—is quickly shrinking, threatening the livelihoods of farmers in eight U.S. states.

Farmers in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming and South Dakota are overexploiting the aquifer beneath an American breadbasket, threatening an estimated $35 billion in annual crops. Agricultural wells are pulling out water faster than rainfall can recharge it—federal data shows the aquifer shrank twice as fast in the past six years as compared to the previous 60.

"Now I never know, from one minute to the next, when I turn on a faucet or hydrant, whether there will be water or not. The aquifer is being depleted," Lois Scott, 75, who lives west of Cope, Colorado, told the Denver Post.

In some parts of eastern Colorado the depth at which groundwater can be tapped has dropped by as much 100 feet, according to U.S. Geological Survey data. The USGS has released data on the Ogallala aquifer since 1988. In Colorado alone, farmers pumped water out of 4,000 wells, sucking out as much as 500 gallons per minute to irrigate roughly 580,000 acres. Since 1950 the amount of water used to irrigate farm fields across the eight states equals roughly 70 percent of Lake Erie.

Even if farmers drastically reduce pumping, the aquifer wouldn't refill for centuries, according to the latest research. But the eight states that sit on the Ogallala have no agreement among themselves to try to save the aquifer.

"This will truly become the Great American Desert," Scott said.

The fallout from the aquifer is visible above ground as well. Streams are drying up at a rate of six miles per year.

"We have almost completely changed the species of fish that can survive in those streams, compared with what was there historically. This is really a catastrophic change," Keith Gido, one of the authors of a report on the aquifer, told the Denver Post.

Overpumping has dried up 358 miles of surface rivers and streams within a 200-square-mile area across eastern Colorado, western Kansas and Nebraska. Another 177 miles of rivers and stream are on pace to disappear before the year 2060, according to researchers.

"We're not living in as sustainable a fashion as we need to be. Much of the damage has been done," Gido said.

"It is happening all over the world in places such as Pakistan. It causes conflicts. As human populations grow, the demand for water is going to be greater. Conflicts are going to increase—unless we become more efficient in using the water we have."

Saturday, November 25, 2017

Cartoon: Paul Ryan's thoughts and prayers



By the Numbers: The Trump Orbit's Contacts With Russians

The Trump campaign and Russia. (image: Getty Images)
The Trump campaign and Russia. (image: Getty Images)

By Marshall Cohen, CNN
22 November 17
readersupportednews.org
 
ere is a look, by the numbers, at all the known contacts between Trump associates and Russians. From meetings to emails, to text messages and Skype sessions, these lists have been growing throughout the year as more details drip out in the investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 US elections.

Overall statistics
  • At least 12 Trump associates had contacts with Russians during the campaign or transition

  • There were at least 19 face-to-face interactions with Russians or Kremlin-linked figures

  • There were at least 51 communications -- meetings, phone calls, email exchanges and more.

  • This flies in the face of at least nine blanket denials from Trump world of any contacts with Russia
More on Trump associates' contacts with Russians

At least 12 of President Donald Trump's associates had contact with Russians during the presidential campaign or transition, according to their own statements, court filings and reporting from CNN and others.

Some interactions were straightforward, like a public handshake with the Russian ambassador. Others are more controversial, such as a secret meeting to get "dirt" on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

This number has grown throughout the year, largely thanks to public reporting that has forced new acknowledgments and explanations from Trump's associates. All of the Trump associates who have spoken out deny any improper contacts with Russians and deny participating in any collusion with the Kremlin to influence the US election.

This list included White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Donald Trump Jr., former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and others affiliated with the Trump campaign and business empire.

Trump's aides and associates had at least 19 face-to-face meetings with Russians or people affiliated with the Russian government during the presidential campaign and transition, according to their public statements, court filings and reporting from CNN and other outlets.

Some of these meetings were about the campaign -- like Trump adviser George Papadopoulos' meetings with Russians in Europe. Others were claimed to be for non-campaign purposes, like when then-Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., met the Russian ambassador in his Senate office.

In all, there were at least 51 communications during the campaign or transition between Trump associates and Russians or people closely affiliated with the Russian government, according to their public statements, court filings and reporting from CNN and other news outlets.

These interactions include face-to-face meetings, phone calls, text messages, emails, private messages on social media and online video chats. The vast majority of these exchanges became known only after Trump took office.

About one-third of these interactions came from Papadopoulos and were revealed in October in court filings prepared by special counsel Robert Mueller's team before Papadopoulos' guilty plea.

On at least nine occasions, Trump and his senior officials denied that there had been any contacts whatsoever with Russians during the campaign or that there were any ties between the campaign and Russians.

These denials petered out last spring as more and more interactions were reported in the media. But before those reports, Trump himself and other senior administration officials offered blanket denials that had been any communication between campaign officials and Russians.

"Russia is a ruse," Trump said in February. "I have nothing to do with Russia. Haven't made a phone call to Russia in years. ... I have nothing to do with Russia. To the best of my knowledge no person that I deal with does."

Days after the election, now-White House Communications Director Hope Hicks issued denials on behalf of the Trump campaign about the issue of Russia contacts.

She told The New York Times that the campaign was "not aware of any campaign representatives that were in touch with any foreign entities" during the election. And she told The Associated Press that "there was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign."

Friday, November 24, 2017

The GOP tax heist: Looting 50 percent of Americans to line the pockets of the top 1 percent



US President-elect Donald Trump gives the thumbs up after a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on November 10, 2016. / AFP / NICHOLAS KAMM        (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
Republicans are lying to you yet again

The more daylight the GOP’s tax plan sees, the more it stinks to high heaven. The takeaway from the latest analysis of the Senate bill shows that it will actually raise taxes on about one-half of Americans when all is said and done. The Washington Post writes:
Here is the key takeaway from the new analysis, which is the work of the Tax Policy Center: By 2027, around 50 percent of taxpayers will see a tax hike. The whole purpose of this tax increase is to make it possible for Senate Republicans to pass a tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the very wealthiest taxpayers — on party lines, without any Democrats.
What the Senate tax bill does is frontload the benefits to middle- and low-income Americans, shrinking them steadily over time until they entirely disappear and, in most cases, are replaced by a hike. Check out what happens by 2027, once the Senate plan is fully implemented: Most low- and middle-income Americans will see a tax increase, but fully 83 percent of the top 1 percent and 98 percent of the top .1 percent will get a cut.


A chart showing that while most low- and middle-income Americans will a tax increase by 2027, 83 percent of the top 1 percent will get a cut and 98 percent of the top .1 percent will get a cut.
“By 2027, all that’s really left is a big corporate tax cut,” [Tax Policy Center researcher Joseph] Rosenberg told me. “This primarily benefits high-income people — people with a lot of capital income — shareholders, people who have capital gains dividends, and people who have interest income.”
The whole point of zeroing out the tax cuts for lower-income groups, resulting in a tax hike for so many people, is to fund the continued corporate tax cuts, so they don’t add to the deficit in the long run, allowing Republicans to pass the bill via a simple majority vote.
That’s the “big, beautiful Christmas present” Donald Trump has promised to deliver to the American people.

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Forbes Bottom Lines Insanity of GOP Tax Bill: They're Coming For Your Social Security & Medicare



IMG_6805.JPG
Why would they want to do that?

REBLOGGED BY
Today's article in a Forbes Magazine oped contributor blog post describes how the current GOP tax bills are “the end of GOP economic sanity” and goes through a long list of problems that would never have been inflicted on the US populace before:
"If it's enacted, the GOP tax cut now working its way through Congress will be the start of a decades-long economic policy disaster unlike any other that has occurred in American history."
"There's no economic justification whatsoever for a tax cut at this time. U.S. GDP is growing, unemployment is close to 4 percent (below what is commonly considered "full employment"), corporate profits are at record levels and stock markets are soaring. It makes no sense to add any federal government-induced stimulus to all this private sector-caused economic activity, let alone a tax cut as big as this one."
After going through a list of problems it will cause, such as high inflation which monetary policy will no longer be able to affect, they come to this:
  • Without massive cuts in Social Security, Medicare and the Pentagon, it won't be possible to reduce federal spending enough to do more than tweak the deficit.
And there it is. The only option that will be available to ameliorate the significant problems these tax cuts will cause is to cut these parts of the budget. None of the other options is feasible. And the Pentagon budget is sacrosanct. That leaves Social Security and Medicare.

This was a goal of the invasion of Iraq- explode the debt and deficit to the point where cuts to entitlements are the only solution. But that was staved off with a democratic president. And now we are back to square one. Only this time the super rich get a massive windfall in the bargain.

This is what they have wanted for decades. They have had their eyes on the prize and they see it getting closer and clearer. This won't be an unintended consequence- it is the plan. The goal.

And the gall to try and sell a measly tax cut of a few hundred dollars as a boon for the “middle class”.

I'm sure Democratic legislators are well aware of this. My question- is it taboo for them to engage on this subject?

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Dems prove not even GOP believe tax cut scam will increase middle-class income at hearing



Democrats introduced a smart amendment to the GOP tax scheme that would have forced Republicans to put their vote where their promises are. Suffice it to say, the Republicans scoffed.

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced an Amendment written by Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) to the Republican tax cut scam bill that should have sailed through the Finance Committee. After all, Republicans have been promising that middle-class America would see a $4000 wage increase. The Menedez bill was simple.

"If you actually do believe that massive handouts to corporations will cause this magical wage growth," Wyden said. "Then you ought to be able to support some basic guardrails. Under this amendment, tax cuts for multinational corporations are reversed if American workers wages go down. ... We've been told by the Trump administration that this corporate rate cut is going to put $4000 into the pockets of middle-class workers. So what Senator Menendez says, 'Why don't we at least say if workers wages go down, not only do they not get the $4000 but if their wages go down, then the tax cuts for multinationals would be reversed.'"

He then continued.

"I think Senator Menendez is offering a common sense check on the promises that have been given middle-class families, for now, months," Wyden said. "I urge my colleagues to stand up for the middle-class and vote for this important Menedez Amendment."

Republicans would have none of it. You see they know they are perpetrating a fraud on the American people. They will not give any guarantees that what they are doing will work. It never has. Trickle-down, supply-side, voodoo economics, has always been a failure. The Laffer curve did not work in Kansas, and it will not work for America.

Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) had one of the most incoherent and intellectually inept rebuttals one has ever heard. In fact, it showed he was in need of an economics 101 class.

Toomey said businesses want predictability which is true. But he said telling businesses that taxes would revert if the promises are not realized would cause promises not to be realized.

Really? In other words, we give the tax breaks to businesses under the pretext that they will create jobs and increase wages and then there is no penalty for them not fulfilling that promise. Anyone remembers when the Republican Party used to attempt to sell themselves, as the accountability party. We know it was always a farce. But now they are not even attempting to hide it.