OK, so everyone’s tax refund sucked this year. Well, if you’re a billionaire, you did better than ever, but for the rest of us, the first year of the GOP’s so-called tax reform was a major bust.
Yes, I know that a smaller tax refund is actually a good thing, financially, for the average person. But that’s not how many Americans are interpreting it.
For example, many Trump supporters are expressing their “feelings of anger and betrayal— some of whom are now surprised to find themselves owing upwards of several thousand dollars to the IRS.”
Personally, I have exceedingly little sympathy for those middle-class people who were naïve enough to believe that the GOP would actually help them. Today’s crop of Republicans could not give a half a fuck about anyone who makes less than million per year, and this is well-publicized news.
The bigger issue is that the Trump supporters who are complaining about their tax refunds are really saying the following: “I am ok with racism, misogyny, lying, corruption and incompetence. I’m even fine with unraveling democracy, endangering America’s security, damaging the planet, and possibly having a Russian mole in the White House. I’m good with all of it, as long as I get a few hundred bucks back at tax time.”
Never have so many people sold out their integrity for such a pathetic pittance.
Of course, many Trump supporters are not just ok with racism and misogyny, they love it, so they have no integrity to sell out in the first place.
Either way, it is not a good look, as the kids say.
Still, just because the GOP tax law was an overt scam that further enriched the wealthy and screwed over the middle class doesn’t mean that we’re doing anything to change the situation.
For example, our buddy Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has recently gotten everyone shouting and seething and swooning over her idea of instituting a 70 percent marginal tax rate on the super-rich.
Many respected economists say that she is on to something. But to the Fox News crowd, this is just another example of out-of-control leftists cramming “socialism” down the throats of good, decent Americans.
As many have pointed out, “socialism” is now anything that asks millionaires to pay a little more.
As a side note, criticizing AOC for getting the occasional fact wrong is hilarious coming from right-wingers. After all, they feverishly support a doofus who doesn’t understand the first thing about the US Constitution, the separation of powers, the job of the chief executive, the basics of international diplomacy, the concept of global economics, or just about anything that doesn’t have to do with golf or fast food. Oh, and the guy has lied in public approximately 8,000 times in two years.
So I would back off.
Now, regardless of whether AOC’s plan is correct on the numbers, it is clearly on the right path. After all, wealth inequality is currently at its highest point since right before the Great Depression, and several indicators of economic calamity are flashing red.
As such, if throwing money at the 1 percent and hoping for the best was really a sound policy for America, the effects would have trickled down (so to speak) by now.
Still, all this talk about wealth disparity and inequality has gotten me thinking about my Mayan ancestors.
Wait… what does all this have to do with the Mayans?
Well, to learn the answer that excellent question, you will have to wait until next week’s post.
