Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
WaPo / Catherine Rampell: The GOP proves Orwell right: In this party, 2+25
WaPo / Catherine Rampell - (archived: https://archive.ph/gZsGw ) The GOP proves Orwell right: In this party, 2+2=5
Extending Trump’s tax cuts will cost trillions of dollars? No problem.
The word “Orwellian” is overused. Virtually every party and political faction has been compared with the work of George Orwell at some point. But Republicans have now truly earned the label. They have manifested one of the satirist’s most iconic warnings (from his dystopian novel, “1984″ ):
“In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five,” Orwell wrote, “and you would have to believe it.”
Senate Republicans on Wednesday decided their party alone will control how math works. This is a pressing legislative question at present, because pretzeling budgetary outcomes into prettier shapes and sizes will determine whether Republicans can pass President Donald Trump’s promised tax cuts.
Those cuts are very expensive. They include not only extensions of the 2017 tax law provisions (set to expire this year), but they also lower corporate rates as well as carveouts for tips, auto loan payments and other goodies. In total, Trump’s preferred tax agenda could cost between $5 trillion and $11 trillion over the next decade.
This is inconvenient. Republicans like to pretend they’re fiscal conservatives (at least some of the time). They would prefer not to acknowledge the hefty price tag, and they also don’t want to fully offset it with unpopular spending cuts.
/snip
Extending Trump’s tax cuts will cost trillions of dollars? No problem.
The word “Orwellian” is overused. Virtually every party and political faction has been compared with the work of George Orwell at some point. But Republicans have now truly earned the label. They have manifested one of the satirist’s most iconic warnings (from his dystopian novel, “1984″ ):
“In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five,” Orwell wrote, “and you would have to believe it.”
Senate Republicans on Wednesday decided their party alone will control how math works. This is a pressing legislative question at present, because pretzeling budgetary outcomes into prettier shapes and sizes will determine whether Republicans can pass President Donald Trump’s promised tax cuts.
Those cuts are very expensive. They include not only extensions of the 2017 tax law provisions (set to expire this year), but they also lower corporate rates as well as carveouts for tips, auto loan payments and other goodies. In total, Trump’s preferred tax agenda could cost between $5 trillion and $11 trillion over the next decade.
This is inconvenient. Republicans like to pretend they’re fiscal conservatives (at least some of the time). They would prefer not to acknowledge the hefty price tag, and they also don’t want to fully offset it with unpopular spending cuts.
/snip
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
from the article is my favorite new word 
