Murkowski Rolls
Apparently, the giant hole the Senate tax bill blows in the ACA won’t stop Lisa Murkowski from supporting the upper-class tax cuts she craves:
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) cast a decisive, dramatic vote to save health care for millions of people over the summer. The chances of her doing it again just went way down.
With Republicans preparing to vote on tax cut legislation next week, Murkowski announced on Tuesday that she would not oppose the bill simply because it includes a provision repealing the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.
To favor keeping the ACA while opposing the mandate is a classic example of “we want Denmark’s services with Mississippi’s tax rates” suburban “moderate” Republicanism. And thinking that a policy change that will cause prices on insurance markets to skyrocket is a solution to insurance being too expensive is just flat-out dumb.
Anyway, I don’t understand how anyone can be complacent about the taxes of Republicans passing a dreadful tax bill, but I think it’s pretty clear now it’s more likely to pass than not. In related news, I love the shade Krugman throws at Orrin Hatch’s performative outrage:
So we’re really looking at an unprecedented level of dishonesty here. But what happens when you try to explain what’s going on? When Senator Sherrod Brown tried to point out, correctly, that the Senate G.O.P.’s tax bill heavily favors the rich, Senator Orrin Hatch exploded, calling it “bull crap” and asserting that he grew up poor (which is relevant why, exactly?).
Sorry, but this isn’t the righteous anger of a man falsely accused of wrongdoing. It’s the rage con men always exhibit when caught out in their con.
But what’s the con about? The very incoherence of the arguments Republicans are making for their plans shows that it’s not about helping the economy, let alone ordinary families. It really is about making the rich richer, at everyone else’s expense. If this be bull crap, make the most of it.