Opinion

Tax Reforms Are a Republican Betrayal

It seems Republicans only care about the debt and about process when Democrats are in power.

United States Capitol Washington
United States Capitol in Washington DC, January 15 (DoD/William Lockwood)

The tax reforms enacted in the United States Senate in the early hours of Saturday morning are a betrayal of everything Republicans campaigned on for the last eight years.

  • They said they cared about the debt, yet they are adding at least $1 trillion to the debt over the next ten years.
  • They promised to stabilize insurance markets and make health care more affordable, but repealing Obamacare’s individual mandate will do the opposite.
  • They complained Democrats rushed Obamacare and left insufficient time for amendments and debate, yet they enacted tax cuts without holding any hearings and by literally hand-writing changes into the bill at the last minute.

I agreed with Republicans at the time: Democrats underestimated the possibility of a debt crisis and I wished they would have accepted more Republicans proposals for health reform.

Although I wonder now how much Republicans really cared about market-based health-care reform. They failed to repeal and replace Obamacare when they had the chance.

It rather seems they only care about the debt and about process when Democrats are in power.