CMR: “This is huge!”

In her email to constituents, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers exclaimed “This is huge!” And indeed it is huge! The recently-passed tax bill is a huge boondoggle for the rich!

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates that, under the law, the middle fifth of American households will see an average increase in after-tax income next year of $930 while the top 1 percent gets an average increase of $51,140! This is paid for by an approximately 1.5 trillion-dollar increase in national debt over 10 years (nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office). That is huge!

Economist Lisa Brown, former Washington state Senate majority leader from Spokane and chancellor of Washington State University Spokane, including the new medical school, is running against McMorris Rodgers. Brown’s analysis: “The fundamental reality of this [tax] bill is that 83 percent of the benefits go to the top 1 percent, and I don’t see that as pro-most families. And I don’t see it as pro-economy either” (Spokesman-Review, Dec. 21, 2017).

My heartfelt thanks to the Republican Party and its loyal echo, McMorris Rodgers, for my first monthly middle class increase in income from the bill. In fact, I’ve already spent it — at the Dollar store. That is minuscule!

Norm Luther

Spokane