Capital overdose
When Michael Jackson died in 2009 after being given an astounding cocktail of drugs by his personal physician, there was a lot of head scratching about how a doctor - someone who's entire profession is built around the Hippocratic Oath - could make such a poor decision when it came to treatment. The conventional wisdom was that through Jackson's status and wealth, he had self-selected a physician that was willing to give him whatever he asked for, even if it wasn't in his best interest for long term health. He would have fired anyone who didn't have the "right" mentality.
Republicans in the House passed a tax plan this week, which led to an exchange between Senators Sherrod Brown and Orrin Hatch in which Orrin Hatch said this:
I come from the poor people, and I've been here working my whole stinkin' career for people who don't have a chance. And I really resent anybody saying I'm just doing it for the rich. Give me a break.
It occurred to me when I watched that exchange that Republicans really do believe the things that they say. They really do believe that their tax proposal will benefit the middle class. They really do believe that cutting corporate tax rates will lead to increased investment, more jobs, and higher wages. Why is there so much agreement within the GOP about the benefits of lowering corporate tax rates when there's so much disagreement about it among economists? Why do they continue to believe that tax cuts are the economic engine of growth when available evidence suggests otherwise?
To answer that question, it helps to think back to Michael Jackson's untimely death. In the same way that Michael Jackson self-selected a personal physician who was willing to give him any and all drugs he wanted, the GOP has self-selected Senators who are true believers in the promise of trickle-down economics. The GOP, driven by an unquenchable thirst for money and power has hand picked Republicans that check certain boxes on economic theory. The GOP, funded by the likes of the Koch brothers, has weeded out any dissent that might question the long term benefit of giving Wall Street a bigger piece of the pie. The GOP has been so effective at selecting for this trait that it is de facto Republican orthodoxy that tax cuts for corporations will lead to a stronger middle class, and Republicans like Paul Ryan truly believe that the tax proposal that he and the other Republicans are passing is good for the middle class.
I don't know what the Koch brothers believe in their hearts. Maybe they really do care about the middle class. But I doubt it. I suspect that they only care about power and wealth. I suspect that their interest in lower tax rates comes from a place of unbridled greed. I suspect that becoming a billionaire requires that you have a singular, relentless obsession with power and wealth, and once you achieve that status, the obsession doesn't just go away. In fact, you probably have to fight even harder to hold on to it, fighting against paranoid delusions that the moochers are trying to steal the wealth that you worked so hard to achieve (even if most of your wealth was inherited). And much like Michael Jackson, the Koch brothers and the other mega-donors have molded a political party into one that will give them anything and everything they want. And also like Michael Jackson, they're at risk for overdosing. They risk destabilizing the entire political and economic system upon which their wealth is built. And if that happens, all we can do is shake our heads and ask, "Why would a political party feed the elites so much money and power that it would actually lead to their own downfall?"
Hey Republicans! Throw your tax proposal in the garbage where it belongs. Here's a better one. Increase the Earned Income Tax Credit, add workers without children to it, and then offset the cost by adding a 45% tax bracket on earnings over 1 million along with a 25% tax on long term capital gains for those in the top two tax brackets.
The true irony is that Trump was ostensibly elected president on a populist wave. It was a rejection of the "establishment" by Republican voters. They loved the fact that he funded his own campaign and was not beholden to the moneyed elites. And yet here we have a Republican tax proposal that looks exactly like it would if Jeb Bush had been elected president. If the people who voted for Trump were holding him to a higher standard than just, let's say, being a bull in a china shop, then they would probably be having buyer's remorse right about now.