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babylonsister

(171,074 posts) Fri Feb 17, 2017, 08:40 PM Feb 2017

Charles P. Pierce: And There Goes Paul Ryan

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a53251/paul-ryan-tax-plan-problems/

And There Goes Paul Ryan

Suddenly his magic tax plans seem like a cheap illusion.
By Charles P. Pierce
Feb 17, 2017

Speaker Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, has discovered that even some of his fellow Republicans have existential doubts about the magic contained in his magical economic asterisks. At issue is one of the centerpieces of his screw-the-poor tax "reform" plan, as Tiger Beat on the Potomac informs us. It's called the "border adjustment tax," which Ryan describes as something between a tariff and the traditional Republican support for open trade borders. This is because Ryan, for all the pixels wasted on his alleged economic genius, really doesn't know what the hell he's talking about.

Senate Republicans look at this "border adjustment tax" and they see a tariff. This is especially true of Republicans in whose states are located the corporate headquarters of, say, Walmart, like Senator Tom Cotton, the bobble-throated slapdick pen pal of the Iranian mullahs. From TBOTP:

The next day, Sen. Tom Cotton took to the Senate floor to slam Ryan's so-called border adjustment tax, saying "some ideas are so stupid only an intellectual could believe them."

Granted, what Cotton said is perfectly in tune with the contempt most conservatives have for people who are smarter than they are, and it also calls Ryan an "intellectual"—"Objection, Your Honor! Assumes facts not in evidence!"—but it's a great quote. And Ryan's idea really is that dumb. But he needs it. Otherwise there's a trillion-dollar hole in his plan to shove even more of the nation's wealth upwards to the friends who buy him his $300 bottles of wine.

Ryan also has resistance from his own caucus in the House and, apparently, he lives in fear that something will emerge from the chaos down at Camp Runamuck that will make his life even worse.

The clock is ticking for Ryan. Senior House Republican sources told POLITICO that if the border adjustment proposal is not included in Trump's tax blueprint, set to be unveiled in the coming weeks, it could be even tougher to rally Republicans to the idea. Supporters of Ryan's proposal are crossing their fingers that Trump doesn't introduce a detailed tax plan at all, worried it could complicate their work. A source familiar with the White House's thinking said it's unlikely Trump would try to push through the border-adjustment tax if key administration officials and senators are still divided over it.

If having Donald Trump as president* is the thing that blows up Paul Ryan's rep in the Congress, and among the elite political press…well, it still wouldn't be worth having Donald Trump as president*, but it would be a good thing.