The GOP Tax Bill Will Hit Parts of Central Washington Hard
All of the races in 2018 are important, but the Democrats' best chance of flipping a red district blue lies in Washington's 8th congressional district, which runs from Auburn in the west to Wenatchee in the east. Part of the party's success in this race will lie in convincing people that the tax bill Trump just signed—the GOP's sole achievement after a year in charge of every branch of government—will make their lives worse.
Four-time loser Dino Rossi, the only Republican vying for the seat, must hope the extra cash in some peoples' wallets this year will blind them to the present and future impacts of this bill.
You can read about the bill's winners and losers in this breakdown from the New York Times. Nationally, the winners include Trump and his family, giant corporations, architects, engineers, lawyers, and tax accountants, and any other individual who can claim they're a corporation and take the corporate tax rate. Losers include the 13 million people who will be kicked off their health insurance, old people, poor people, the middle class, people with houses worth over $750,000 (which includes tens of thousands of homeowners in the 8th district), high tax states, Puerto Rico, and the I.R.S.
A number of people who live in the 8th fall into the "loser" category. Here's a closer look at the constituents who stand to be particularly damned:
Those Who Rely On the Affordable Care Act
According to a recent estimate from Kaiser, nearly 21,00 people in the 8th rely on the Affordable Care Act for their healthcare. Shortly after the bill passed in the Senate, Mitch McConnell said the tax bill "takes the heart out of Obamacare." He may be the vampiric leader of the undead horde, but he's not wrong. Removing the mandate = "skinny repeal." Premiums will spike, people will drop their insurance, companies will pull out of rural markets, and patients and hospitals will suffer. That's why the Washington State Hospital Association came out against skinny repeal when Republicans tried to pull that shit last summer.
https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/12/20/25643651/the-gop-tax-bill-will-hit-parts-of-central-washington-hard
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It sure would be nice if we could flip my old home district.
