Four out of five taxpayers will see their bills reduced in 2018, but few of them expect to see the cash.
Have you ever come up with what you think is the perfect Christmas gifta well-chosen, carefully considered presentonly for the recipient to react not just with indifference, but with outright hostility? Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan can sympathize.
Most Americans will save money under the tax bill that the Senate passed Tuesday night and the House passed Wednesday. The size of that benefit varies, but 80 percent of households will see some benefit in 2018. (The cuts shrink over time, eventually reduced to nothing for most people in 2027.) Its not just that a plurality of respondents in a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll say the cuts are a bad idea (41-24, with 35 percent unsure or holding no opinion), or might have bad long-term effects. Its that only 17 percent actually believe theyll get a break. That result is in line with other polls that have shown similar skepticism about receiving any benefit.
Republican leaders insist that once people start seeing the benefits, their views on the taxes will turn around. If we cant sell this to the American people then we should be in another line of work, McConnell said early Wednesday morning. Whether or not that is true, the unpopularity of the cuts now is remarkable. Who doesnt like free money?
President Trumps theory for unawareness about the impending tax cuts is unsurprising, since its his standard explanation for all of his travails. The Tax Cuts are so large and so meaningful, and yet the Fake News is working overtime to follow the lead of their friends, the defeated Dems, and only demean, Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. This is truly a case where the results will speak for themselves, starting very soon. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs! McConnell griped at reporters Tuesday night, Your job is to use the Democrats talking points. I understand that.
Coverage of the bill has been negativeFareed Zakaria called it possibly the worst piece of major legislation in a generationbut while that cant help, placing the blame entirely on the press overestimates its influence and ignores that portions of the bill are simply unpopular, and thats after tens of millions of dollars in ad spending to boost its approval. The bills unpopularity might also be traced to anger about the fact that it undermines the newly popular Affordable Care Act, or awareness that its cuts will eventually expire, but thats different from the strictly empirical whether it will reduce tax bills in the immediate term. Besides, the number of people directly affected by the changes to health care is small.
Sour grapes and Trump Derangement Syndrome have this being spun as a "tax cut for the rich" by the humiliated media, when reality couldn't be farther from it. ---