Rep. Ann Wagner (R-2) voted for the House GOP tax cut sham bill. And she’s flaunting that fact. She thinks we’re stupid.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for Annie to come clean about what she actually voted for – there’s lots of undeniable details that she will try to deny apparently doen’t want you to know.

First, this bill is a veritable cornucopia of goodies for the 1%. It gives big tax cuts to rich folks – some permanent since it abolishes the estate tax, the Alternative Minimum tax that insures rich folks pay some taxes, and changes rules for pass-through income and investment income. It cuts corporate tax rates permanently from 35% to 20% without closing many of the loopholes that allowed most big corporations to actually pay somewhere in the neighborhood of 0 – 18%. Can you imagine how much less they’ll pay since they”ll be applying a plethora of tax breaks to an even lower rate?We’ll probably end up paying them.

Second, although the bill does give a few breaks to middle and lower income taxpayers with one hand, it mostly takes them away with the other. Many of the deductions and credits that are eliminated under the rubric “simplification” are those relied upon by middle class families. Some middle income earners will see higher tax bills right away, but even those who end up with a lower tax bill now may ultimately end up getting the shaft. GOPers usually neglect to point out that many of the goodies designated for the middle class are, for the most part, temporary.

Oh – crucial fact, given Rep. Wagner’s former concern for the national debt – the sham tax cut bill also adds $1.5 trillion dollars to the deficit. That’s why middle class folks don’t get permanent tax cuts and lose lots of exemptions and tax breaks they rely on – they can’t let that deficit go past the aforementioned $1.5 trillion and still pass the bill with only GOP votes.  It’s all smoke and mirrors (albeit thin smoke and murky mirrors) that lets rich investors make out like the proverbial bandit on the backs of those of us who aren’t rich enough to invest in a pet congressman. Or woman.

It’s hard to touch on all the mischief the sloppily written grab-bag of crony pleasing giveaways manages to do in its effort to please the more vicious members of the far right. It does away with the individual mandate of the ACA, a feature that will likely result in premium increases for all of us and eventually deprive 13 million people of insurance coverage. In a bid to convince dumb-as-dirt evangelicals (i.e. those who still try to excuse Roy Moore) that big gifts to GOP cronies a good thing, it does away with the provisions of the Johnson Amendment that stipulated that churches could retain tax-exempt status only by refraining from political advocacy from the pulpit. Now thanks to the corrupt GOP, we get to subsidize the efforts of some more authoritarian religious types to impose their religious views on the rest of us.

Another thing Republicans like Wagner aren’t telling us is that sooner rather than later, there will almost certainly be a $25 billion cut to Medicare:

Thanks to laws created by the Tea Party’s infamous 2010 sequester showdown over government spending, automatic cuts spring into action anytime Congress passes a bill that balloons the federal deficit, as the tax bill would. The approximately $136 billion in cuts spurred by the GOP tax bill would hit a number of government programs—including farm subsidies and the Border Patrol—but would cut most deeply into Medicare. Medicaid, Social Security, and food stamps are protected.

So if Wagner’s keeping quiet about what the GOP tax sham bill really does, what has she actually said about this travesty to justify her vote? Two words: mendacious fantasy (a.k.a. lies). Here’s an excerpt from her floor speech (I assume that the presentation of the word “yes” in all capitals means that our Annie is still screeching every time she votes for something that is bad for her constituents – her tell maybe? :

I vote YES to fix our broken tax system; I vote YES to help reignite the American economy; I vote YES to make it a little bit easier for that single mother of two, that firefighter, that teacher, shop owner, family of four, that Veteran; I vote YES for bigger paychecks, better savings and a more secure future. I ran for Congress to fight for the people of Missouri and to ensure that every hard-working American can realize their own American Dream,”

Broken economy? Not to hear economists tell it. And that nonsense about cutting corporate taxes to fix this “broken economy,” create jobs and raise wages? No one believes that trickle-down nonsense anymore. For example, when asked recently to affirm that the tax cut would inspire them to invest more, even a panel of CEOs of major companies bluntly shot that idea down. As for rich-folk goodies like eliminating the estate tax, write-offs for private jets? Like to hear how Wagner thinks that’ll help that “single mother of two” that she’s so worried about.

But hey! Annie’s has got a middle-class card up her sleeve. In her latest email newsletter she enthused about one feature of the bill that she voted for in particular: “This bill also protects the Adoption Tax Credit which I fought to protect. For decades this pro-family provision has helped provide children with loving families and stable homes.”

So that leaves us with the Adoption Tax Credit.  All this misery, but we get to keep a small-potatoes adoption tax credit that wouldn’t be in danger if Rep. Wagner and her GOP pals didn’t desperately need to please their donors in order to keep the money flowing.

Whoopee!

CORRECTION: The House Bill that Wagner voted on did not, as implied above, eliminate the ACA’s individual mandate – that provision is currently only included in the Senate version although many GOP House members have indicated that they will support its inclusion in the final legislation.

The Chair of the Missouri Republican Party, Ed Martin, has a problem with the reality that the rest of us inhabit. The proof? Read his oddly gloating statement about the Obamacare signup numbers that were released Monday. He starts cute:

The truth hurts; at least it hurts everyday Missourians and millions around the country. Another month of enrollment numbers brings another announcement from the Administration cloaking the colossal failure that is ObamaCare.

“The truth hurts”? Give me a break. Is Martin trying to say that the numbers aren’t accurate? If so, where’s his proof? Or is Martin really so dense that he  believes the fact that total enrollments doubled in December constitutes some type of failure? In fact, this new evidence that the early rollout hiccups are now in the past inspired The Wasington Post‘s Ezra Klein to announce that we’re seeing the “death of Obamacare’s death spiral,” – you, know, that “death spiral” that folks like Martin have been heralding for the last three months.

Seems to me that the main thing that the new numbers tell us is that lots of folks have managed to get healthcare coverage, many for the first time. But that type of success doesn’t concern Ed Martin:

No amount of repairs to a website, or new rules meant to shore up ObamaCare’s failed policy, will fix the problem the law created for countless Americans that lost theirs plans through no fault of their own.

And this is where the truth actually does hurt – only the wounded entity is Ed Martin’s credibility. As Patrick Caldwell notes in Mother Jones, the truth “turns out to be a tad more complicated” than the rote talking points of GOPers like Martin suggest:

… . On New Year’s Eve, the Democratic minority on the House Energy and Commerce Committee released a report examining exactly how many people will lack health insurance under the new regime. The report uses an Associated Press estimate that 4.7 million people received cancellation notices as their baseline. But out of that group, according to the Democrats, only a small sliver of Americans-just 10,000 people-who lost their 2013 coverage won’t have access to affordable insurance.

“Previous false claims have included the assertion that the law requires death panels, that the law represents a government take over of health care, and that law has caused millions to lose their jobs,” the report says. “The assertion that the law will cause five million individuals who currently have coverage in the individual market to go without coverage in 2014 is similarly baseless.”

But Martin’s got more: He’s sure that the risk pool among the new enrollees is so unbalanced it will bring the whole Obamacare edifice tumbling down:

By the White House’s own admission, the young and healthy will have to shoulder the burden of ObamaCare. Today’s numbers show young Americans are avoiding the mandate at a significant rate. The White House continues to hide key data points by refusing to release the number of Americans that have actually paid for plans selected through the federal marketplace. What are they hiding?

However, as Klein notes, Ed’s worries about the ratio of young enrollees to older, sicker folks is a tad premature:

But — and this can’t be emphasized enough — this is not the final risk pool. No one anywhere expected that the risk pool would be balanced by Jan. 1. Major health laws always follow the same pattern: The people who badly need insurance sign up first, and they tend to be older and sicker. Younger people sign up later — typically right before the penalty hits. So far, the age pattern in Obamacare enrollment is tracking the age pattern in enrollment for the Massachusetts reforms quite closely.

In fact, as Klein notes, it may take up to three years to sort out the risk pool to the point that we actually understand how well the system will function. At any rate, the current ratio of young to older enrollees is actually not, as it stands, an insurmountable problem according to Larry Levitt, Senior Vice-President of the Kaiser Foundation:

Even if the current mix of enrollees holds, Levitt does not foresee a shock to the insurance system, with only a potential 2 to 3 percent increase in premiums in 2015. “I see no signs at this point of a feared premium ‘death spiral,’ ” in which premiums skyrocket and the system collapses, he says.

Nor is the failure to tell us how many enrollees have paid for their plans a real issue. Just the teensy-tiniest bit of reflection might suggest that it’s a bit too early to get meaningful figures – many new enrollees haven’t even had time to receive billing statements. Perhaps Martin should dry his crocodile tears and ask again in a few months.

It’s Martin’s closing grace notes, however, that are really special:

When America judges this administration, when it’s all said and done, this law will undoubtedly be the downfall of a historic presidency.

Who’d of thought that Martin would be so worried about the legacy of the black man in the white house, the same guy who’s kept Martin and his co-partisans so lathered up during the last five years that they’ve clearly lost touch with the real world.

Okay, so the Repugs have tons of money to pay people to sit around all day and come up with very clever ways to denigrate Democrats and we don’t.  Happy Valentine’s Day indeed.  Everyone who gets that RNC message can have fun choosing a card and sending it to dozens, maybe even hundreds, of other people.

No wonder we’re losing the message war.  According to a recent Wash Post/ABC poll President Obama’s overall job approval rating has gone from 68% in Feb 2009 to 51% now.    

Which party is doing a better job of coping with our country’s current problems? In Dec 2008, between the election and inauguration, Dems scored the confidence of 56% of those polled as opposed to 43% today.  And even more incredibly, Repugs, despite their obstructionism and nasty tempers, have gained the confidence of voters (from 23% to 37%.)

Their lies and smear tactics (funded by Big Pharma and insurance giants) on the topic of health care/insurance reform have paid off too.

On the question of who is doing a better job of handling the health care reform debate? In June 2009, Obama received 55% approval to Repugs 27%approval rating.  Today Obama’s approval is at 46% and Repugs at 41%.

There are many good progressive blogs and online news groups doing heroic deeds, but, for the most part, they are preaching to the choir.  We need national leadership/organization (and I don’t mean the limp and tiresome OFA) to craft a message that resonates with the general public and can be repeated quickly and easily by those of us who want it to sink in.  President Obama seems to have come out of his shell lately, and David Plouffe is back in the saddle, so maybe we’ll finally get a coherent message machine reved up again.