The trillions in Trump tax cuts were, indeed, stupid and did nothing to address inflation, the debt or the GOP's reputation for thievery.
I'd just like to discuss this phrase.
A Republican point of view is, "that's not thievery. It's Democrats committing thievery trying to tax the money, this is just people wanting to keep their own money and not have it stolen by the government!"
They're wrong, of course, and despite it being very unlikely, let's see if any can learn why.
But first, they're not entirely wrong. Their simplistic idea of a horde of Democrats creating overly high taxation just in order to grab money and give it to themselves is theoretically possible. It has about nothing to do with the real situation, but it could happen, so let's admit that.
Let's instead use an analogy. Let's say that in your neighborhood, the city provides services, and pick the library as an example, but we'll treat it as an expensive library or recognize it represents many services.
So everyone pays city taxes to pay for those services. But then the people in the nicest house on your block throw some nice fundraising parties for the city government, and the next thing you know, the city starts passing tax reductions over and over that only apply to the richest neighbors.
And so the people in the nicest house are paying a lower rate of taxes than anyone else, and either the city starts cutting services, or having a big public debt you owe part of. Meanwhile, the richest house just enjoys having more and more money, and starts buying and renting more houses in the neighborhood.
You complain. They're not paying their fair share! It's thievery how they're getting their taxes cut so much! You're told, they're just trying to keep their own money, no thievery.
And this exposes the fallacy, the lie, in the Republican position.
They want to pretend that 'taxation is thievery', there are no 'public expenses' justifying taxes. But contrary to their ideology, there are public expenses, and taxes are legitimately owed for them. Not everyone has to agree on every expense. Maybe some want library expansions and others want its budget cut; the majority rules and the minority has to abide.
This is that basic Republican fallacy, to cheer all tax cuts and especially the ones that actually happen, tax cuts for the rich, no matter the impact on the country, no matter the increases of our debt, no matter the 'fairness' of taxation shares, no matter the rise in inequality. To pretend that all tax cuts for the rich are right and harmless and wonderful.
It's largely an effect of Republican propaganda, always telling people that government is bad, harmful, wasteful, too big; and again, they COULD be right sometimes. Government certainly isn't perfect, and in theory it could be a bloated, corrupt, disaster, but it's generally not now. But Republicans always act like it is.
But this should help people understand why Republicans generally are wrongly loving tax cuts for the rich.
