Who Are the Dreamers Here?

     Well, the cocksuckers finally did it.
     Typically, the Republicans rammed through a bill (51-49) that didn't exist until moments before the vote, held in the dead of night, giving Democrats mere hours, if that, to read all 479 pages, some of it scrawled in longhand. One of those last minute scrawls that was illegible to Senator Jon Tester (D-MN) was to shield a conservative college from paying taxes on their endowments. That college, Hillsdale, the only one meeting the razor-narrow criteria of the bill, has a connection to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a billionaire.
     Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) saw the bill for the first time in the hands of a lobbyist. Yes, Republicans had so effectively sealed off the Democrats, lobbyists saw the fucking tax scam bill before they did. So why didn't the Democrats filibuster the bill? Well, the Republicans had that thought out in advance, too. They used an old Senate rule that effectively bypassed a Democratic filibuster, leaving as their only recourse screaming and ranting on social media, you know, sort of the way Republicans do when they think they're getting excluded even when they aren't.
     So, it looks as if they don't need Roy Moore, after all, and don't have to defend a known pedophile. Don't think the upcoming Senate election in Alabama on the 12th had nothing to do with it.
     And what does this massive looting of the Treasury Department, headed by another billionaire in Steve Mnuchin, mean for the peons? Well...
     It utterly ignores the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's estimation that will add $1.4 trillion to the deficit. It will somewhat pay for these massive cuts for those least needy or deserving of them by raising taxes on poor and middle class people, kick 13,000,000 off their existing health insurance plans, give tax breaks for private jet owners, end an Obama-era abatement on taxation of student loan interests...
     In other words, the Republicans just did everything their redneck, mouthbreathing goober constituents have feared for decades what tax and spend Democrats would do to them. This time, they can't blame the liberals or the Democrats for raising their taxes, handing that money to the 1% and corporations. It also calls for significant cuts to Social Security, Medicare and other government programs the needy depend upon.
     A few Republicans waffled.... briefly. Susan Collins (R-ME) had her misgivings about the bill until McConnell whispered sweet little nothings in her ear, such as his and Trump's promise to shore up the very same ACA that Republicans have tried to destroy since 2009. Jeff Flake also wavered until the same serpent Mitch McConnell cooed soothing promises in his ear about the Trump administration's nonexistent pledge to help the Dreamers stay in this country despite the administration's brutal deportations.
     And John McCain? Well, who knows how much McCain's brain cancer influenced his decision but after voting Nay on both Bush-era tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, he decided this one was worth voting for, even though it's far more catastrophic than either Bush tax cut. In the balance, it seemed like the kind of Aye vote that would be cast by a guy who married into 10 homes and a $100,000,000 beer fortune.
     The only Republican who voted against the bill was Bob Corker, who's retiring this January and has nothing to lose anyway.
     So call your Senators and representatives while they hash out the reconciled version of the bill. It won't do you any good. Even if they know this vote will get them thrown out of office in this November's midterms, they'll still have the tax cut to fall back on since most of them are multimillionaires, anyway.
     In the kingdoms of olde, the King or Emperor never got taxed. He did all the taxing, of the peasants. We're now living in a gigantic fiefdom, so start building your wattle and mud huts. We're in for some lean years ahead.