Krystal Ball: GOP tax cut is ‘opiate of the massively privileged’

By Krystal Ball
Opinion Contributor

According to the newest numbers America’s debt has spiked by $500 billion in the past 6 months, thanks primarily to the expensive cash grab by the rich also known as the republican tax cuts. By every reasonable policy metric these tax cuts have failed. The pace of job creation is slower than it was under Obama.

The deficit has ballooned and worker’s wages have dropped. The public has been understandably unimpressed which is why the GOP and the president barely bother to tout them on the campaign trail. So it’s not a policy win and it’s not a campaign win, yet republicans are already setting their sites on tax giveaway 2.0. What gives?

If you think of the tax cuts less as policy and more as patronage then they make a lot more sense. Let’s call them, the opiate of the massively privileged. Keeping hedge fund managers and oil barons drugged up in a hazy glow of overflowing offshore accounts and champagne soaked private jets.

After all, with all this talk of trade wars and democrats making common cause more and more often with a virtue signaling corporate America, America’s plutocrats could be forgiven for weighing their options. But while republicans may talk more about the working class these days, the tax cuts are a multi-trillion dollar reminder that the GOP is still fully committed to stooping to absolutely shameless levels to debase themselves before their wealthy masters. Nothing says i love you like raiding the taxpayer purse.

And sure enough, The New York Times reports that since the tax giveaway passed, money has been flowing into republican coffers.

Surprise surprise! The times took a close look at Paul Ryan’s affiliated super pac in particular. Looks like Sheldon Adelson, who’s company sands got a $700 million kickback is now in for $30 million. Valero services which was the recipient of $1.9 billion in taxpayer largesse, ponied up about $2 million…you get the picture.

As much as Paul Ryan was touted as an ideas guy, this will be his true legacy. And i have no doubt in retirement, he will get to fully enjoy the largesse of one of the wealthy masters for whom he worked so diligently while in office. Yes, when looked at from the proper perspective the GOP tax smash and grab has been a roaring success.

Krystal Ball is the co-host of “Rising,” Hill.TV’s morning news show.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill.