The GOP has out-Scrooged Mr. Scrooge himself. Their decision to pass this diabolical tax bill right before Christmas is outrageous. Fifty percent of its benefits will go to 1% of the population. If your income derives from stocks or your rich parents, this bill is for you! If you are normal enough to depend on a paycheck, it says “Bah Humbug!”
The GOP bill will kick 13 million people off health insurance. It will raise taxes for the middle class. It will put our next generation into trillions of dollars of debt for decades, when the GOP used to be opposed to deficits. What gives? No one disputes that the biggest cuts will go to the wealthiest Americans. And the Republicans tie it all up with a ribbon of lies about how the tax bill will help the little worker bees, when in fact, it was written and paid for by their billionaire puppeteers.
Here are quotes from two Republican Senators, Scrooge #1 and Scrooge #2:
• Senator Orin Hatch, regarding why he wants to eliminate the Children’s Health Insurance Program for poor kids: “I have a rough time wanting to spend billions and billions and trillions of dollars to help people who won’t help themselves, won’t lift a finger, and expect the federal government to do everything.” Like Scrooge said to the sick, “If you’re going to die, then you better just do it!”
• Senator Chuck Grassley: “I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies.”
Mr. Grassley, you know full well that the repeal of the estate tax is nothing but a handout to the richest 0.2 percent of estates, which are the only ones that will benefit from the repeal. The richest 0.2 percent!
We need the Ghost of Christmas Present to take all these clueless GOP senators to the homes of middle-class Americans. There are millions of us who work two and three jobs, have sick children, can barely pay for heat, cannot afford healthy food, and want a better future. But this bill will be a fatal blow to upward mobility and equality in the US.
The Republicans in Congress are mean in spirit. They have forgotten the fact that we all do better when we all do better.
I recommend everyone send their Senators and Representatives a copy of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” and ask them to consider more than just the desires of their billionaire sponsors. Perhaps if several thousand copies of “A Christmas Carol” arrived on their desks, they would wake from their slumber, much as Scrooge did, and have a change of heart.
Susan Todd,
Fairbanks