Paul Ryan was obliged to take down a tweet a few weeks ago which celebrated a secretary’s tax cut benefit: At $1.50 per paycheck, she would be able to afford a Costco membership.
It’s true that the membership will allow her to save a few hundred dollars per year, assuming she has room to store gallon jars of mustard and such, but it pointed toward a major defect of the bill: The benefits skewed principally to high income households. The rich get richer, and all that.
Little discussed during the bill’s hasty passage is the near-certainty that it will stoke inflation. After all, the economy is already at full employment, which tracks closely to full output. If you have an increase in the dollars chasing a constant volume of goods and services, prices go up — you get inflation. This is, like, Econ 101.
Inflation is going to eat the secretary’s tax cut benefit, which will expire in a few years. The Koch brothers, y’all will be comforted to learn, are going to be just fine; their tax cut will outpace inflation and, since the very wealthy have most of their money in stocks and bonds rather than their debit card, their tax benefit will persist because the corporate tax cut is permanent.
And now come tariffs on steel and aluminum — 25% on steel, 10% on aluminum. That means increases in the cost of an automobile, and white goods such as refrigerators, washers, dryers, on and on. And if you borrow money to buy those things, your cost is going to go up because interest rates will be bid up as Uncle Sam borrows money to pay another $1.5-trillion added to the national debt.
Donald Trump has filed for bankruptcy six times (so it’s not as if he’s an expert on turning a profit), stiffing the people who trusted him. This time, he is once again putting the money in his own pocket — and stiffing the entire country.
Trump likes to read the words of an old Al Wilson song at his rallies:
“I saved you,” cried that woman
“And you’ve bit me even, why?
You know your bite is poisonous and now I’m going to die”
“Oh shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin
“You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in
“Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven’s sake
Take me in oh tender woman,” sighed the snake
Unfortunately, the fools at his rallies were so enthralled by his contemptuous attitude toward the same people they despise — YAAAAAAAY! — that they didn’t see he was laughing at them.