This morning, Joe Scarborough and Heidi Przybyla gamed out the chances of the Republican tax bill passing this year.
"I forgot Bob Corker, who told us before this even started being debated he would have a hard time supporting this tax reform bill because, again, what it would do to the national debt," Scarborough said.
"I talked with a vulnerable Democrat who originally had been courted by this White House and now said no way, basically, because we're at a point right now -- and I think this is also potentially how Bob Corker is feeling, how folks like Jeff Flake may be feeling," Przybyla said.
"At what point does the debt itself crash the economy? At what point does the debt itself -- when you're talking about long-term projections here, if nothing is done and Congress didn't change this, becoming 100% of GDP itself, crash the economy? And I think you're going to have members like Bob Corker ask what exactly is your projection that you're pointing to that guarantees that once we pass this bill, despite all of its flaws of taking more money -- giving more money to the rich than the middle class, of blowing up our national debt, does this actually promote the growth that you're promising?"
(She doesn't mention that it matters very much whether tax cuts puts money in the hands of people who will actually spend it, and put it back into the economy. Because conservatives don't really like that distinction.)
"I don't know if you read the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, there was a story about Gary Cohn asking CEOs, 'How many of you are going to invest once we give you this great Christmas present tax cut?' And he was like, come on, everybody, raise your hands. And they weren't doing it," Przybyla said.
"Kids, by the way, if you're at home and just starting to follow politics, I can tell you it's been the truth over the last 30 years, probably the truth over the next 30 years. The only time Democrats care about the national debt is when Republicans are trying to pass tax cuts. The only time Republicans ever care about the national debt is when a Democrat is in the White House. There you go. Now you know about who -- is that not right? The only time you hear Democrats complaining about the debt is when Republicans want to pass tax cuts and Republicans don't care about the debt when they're the ones in the White House," Scarborough said.
More misleading bothsideserism. Again, it matters very much whether the people who get the tax cuts put the money back into the economy. We have not yet seen a wave of growth and job expansion after giving hefty cuts to the people at the top.
Is Joe that stupid? Nah. He's just a conservative.
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