Senate Republicans are dead set on making sure that the rich people who they've been helping to avoid pay their taxes continue to have the privilege of cheating the rest of us. It would appear that the Democrats participating in the sham called bipartisan infrastructure negotiations are okay with that. According to Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, the group is "looking at alternative pay-fors to IRS tax enforcement."
Again, this is about letting the wealthy off the hook for the taxes they already owe. It's not about new taxes. It's not about raising anyone's taxes. It's about continuing to allow the super-rich to cheat the rest of us, who do pay our tax bills every year.
Republicans have been raising holy hell over the idea that President Joe Biden wants to strengthen the IRS enough so that it can go after the really big tax cheats, the ones robbing the nation of hundreds of billions of dollars, instead of the working poor people who are easier to audit, the ones who can't afford lawyers to intervene. Fully funding the IRS and clawing those owed tax dollars out of the hands of people who can damned well afford to pay has been included as one of the ways that the bipartisan group has said they'll pay for their almost $600 billion proposal for hard infrastructure.
That, apparently, is out and apparently Democrats in the bipartisan group are accepting that fact. Even though it's the likes of extremist Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn who are raising hell—extremists who were never going to vote for an infrastructure plan that helps President Joe Biden in the first place. Senate aides working with the group confirmed to The Washington Post that "it is likely to be removed from the deal."
That means that the fire sale of existing infrastructure to the highest hedge fund bidders, who would then be in a position to make the public pay for its use all over again, could still be in. Because they have to figure out how pay for it somehow anyway. Or at least they say they do, which they really don't because borrowing money is still cheaper than dirt. As of earlier this month, White House aides were telling Democrats in phone conversations that was not an option, but we haven't seen a high-level, public denunciation of that idea.
Republicans aren't just having hissy fits over the IRS making them and their buddies pay all their taxes, however; they’re outraged that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wants them to finish their work. A short exhibit of their varied tantrums:
GOP Sen. Rob Portman, a lead negotiator on the infrastructure deal, responds to Schumer’s Wednesday deadline. Says he will vote NO next week if the bill isn’t finalized. “I’m not gonna vote yes if we don’t have a product. We’re gonna get it right,” Portman told me
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 15, 2021
GOP negotiators didn’t get a headsup before Chuck Schumer set a Wednesday deadline on their bipartisan infrastructure deal, a GOP source familiar with the matter said. And now Republicans say that if the bill text isn’t done by then, then they will vote against moving ahead.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 15, 2021
Rs not thrilled about Wednesday vote to advance infrastructure
Schumer is “trying to put pressure on the group to either put up or shut up. But I don’t think it’s the kind of bill you can just look at and vote on in 24 hours,” Capito says, guessing there won’t be a CBO score— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) July 15, 2021
Never mind that they've supposedly been working on this since April, when Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who is so concerned that there just isn't enough time, started negotiating with Biden. They announced this supposed bipartisan agreement more than three weeks ago. She added that she thought Schumer's scheduling the vote was an attempt "to put pressure on the group to either put up or shut up."
Well ... yes. And about time, too. Because seriously, they've been at this forever. Now, we all know Republicans are awfully rusty when it comes to doing actual work (like writing bills), but there's a bunch of Democrats who could be doing all of that hard part. So what in the hell have they been doing all these weeks, that they can't be ready by next Wednesday?
They've been wasting time, is what they've been doing, hoping to draw this process out and have it die from neglect. And Democrats have been letting them get away with it because "bipartisanship." Now that the $3.5 trillion budget resolution train is getting loaded up, yes, this group needs to put up or shut up. And pay their damned taxes.
Published with permission from Daily Kos.
