Permanent tax cut

The fix was in by Valentine’s Day when President Trump received Montana Senator Steve Daines’ letter of support “that the expiring provisions of the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act must be made permanent and not sunset.” 

The love note came at the end of the most intense period of tax policy lobbying in the history of our United States’ Congress, and seven weeks before the bipartisan Congressional Research Service reported that after reviewing seven different studies of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act it found limited evidence of positive economic effects. 

Another noticeable finding was that the wealthy owners of private corporations pocketed over half their company’s tax cuts.

Daines’s Valentine to Trump means now, instead of costing $1.9 trillion over a ten-year period, extending the expiring provisions will cost $3.3 trillion to $4.6 trillion over the next decade. Of course huge volumes of political contributions will continue pouring into the campaigns of those who vote for this permanent reward for being wealthy and well-connected.

It is illegal under federal bribery laws to give or receive anything of value in exchange for an official act.

ProPublica, The New York Times and OpenSecrets have documented how large donors and Corporate PACs financially support candidates who back tax policies favorable to them, and the Koch Brothers, focusing $20 million of their Americans for Prosperity independent expenditures on extending the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, are already positively advertising for their Tax Cut Sweetheart: Montana’s very own U.S. Senator Steve Daines.

John Driscoll, Helena, Montana