The Republican Party celebrated the New Year with the recent passage of their so-called “tax reform” bill. While some of us may enjoy modest and temporary tax cuts, the bill is a gift to our nation’s plutocracy whose tax cuts are substantial and permanent. All this will come at the cost of an exploding federal deficit. The fiscal rectitude preached by the Republicans during the Obama years was pushed aside when it came time to do the bidding of the moneyed interests they are beholden to.
The bill was hurriedly written in a slapdash manner, with no serious analysis of economic impacts, and rushed through the legislative process in part to avoid public scrutiny. It complicates the tax code and will no doubt bring a host of unintended consequences. One foreseeable consequence is new opportunities for tax cheaters, who will be further emboldened by the fruit of long-term Republican efforts to diminish IRS enforcement powers.
Sadly, District 10’s Representative Barbara Comstock voted for this bill. The excuses she offers to justify her vote show once again that she is just reliably voting the party line regardless of the interests of her constituents or our nation. The people of District 10 can only hope that 2018 will bring them better representation in Congress.
Richard Markeloff
Herndon