The tax bill is one of the more awful and grotesque pieces of legislation in a long time. In the name of cutting corporate taxes and lowering the upper level tax brackets, the GOP is willing to raise taxes on the poor and middle class, especially for people who live in high tax states- by eliminating the state and local tax credit. For millions of Americans, this is not tax reform, but a tax increase. The bill is so bad that they re-wrote the budget bill for 2018 to allow for $1.5 trillion in deficits- all caused by the tax bill. This bill was a failure by any measure, but yesterday they made it worse- now they are going to take away health insurance from 13 million people by eliminating the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act. The chaos that they will introduce into the health care market from this action will cause insurers to spike rates and make health care unaffordable for millions- including many not on "Obamacare" plans.
But if the tax bill is a joke, Roy Moore is a tragedy- he is the next logical step in the GOP's devolution after Trump. Here is a man who rejects modernity in all forms, in favor of Christian fundamentalist law and a return to a past that never actually existed- but that's not the worst thing about him. As a 30-something year old man, Moore was being banned from malls for pursuing teenage girls. His colleagues said it was "common knowledge" that he dated high school girls. Several accusers have come forward to accuse him of sexual assaults. To the credit of most of the national GOP leadership, they have called on him to just go away now- but that is not the unanimous Republican position. Breitbart has reporters down in Alabama trying to "discredit" the accusers. The Alabama GOP is defiantly threatening to bar anyone from the ballot who challenges Moore. Steve Bannon is sticking with his man. Over a third of Alabama voters are saying this scandal makes them more likely to vote for this man- I assume because he's the victim of "outsiders" trying to smear him, like the media, who "always lie." Even now, the GOP is trying to figure out a way around this man that their voters picked, rather than simply letting the public have their vote on December 5th. I guess accountability isn't a thing here.
Then there is Jeff Sessions, the sitting Attorney General of the United States, who put on a performance yesterday in a Congressional hearing that made it look like he needs mental help. He "can't recall" much of anything. Even though some of his answers to questions about the Russia probe have changed, he swears he's telling the truth- every time. He "doesn't remember" meetings with now convicted senior aides to the Trump campaign, aides that he seems to have had actual relationships to. He admitted under oath to not having a single African-American on his senior staff at the Department of Justice, and having just one African-American as a U.S. Attorney- anywhere in the country. It was a performance fit for an idiot- not an Attorney General.
Now we learn that Donald Trump Jr. was working with Wikileaks in the Fall of 2016. Putting aside everything else, a Presidential campaign was working with hackers- something that seems a little unsettling on the surface. When we realize that Wikileaks is perfectly happy to work with Russia (and that our intelligence agencies had said so weeks earlier), this becomes completely horrifying. It is increasingly clear that members of the Trump team worked with Russia to alter our election. There is a conviction, a rather large investigation by a special prosecutor, and ongoing questioning of his senior aides. The President of the United States remains under the cloud of allegations of Russian support a full year after his election. It seems like a spy novel.
This is what "winning" looks like for the Republican Party. I'm thinking the public may be tired of winning now.
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