Flynn and Taxes

Michael Flynn, Donald Trump's former national security adviser, agreed with special counsel Robert Mueller to plead guilty to lying about his contacts with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak, after it turned out that he had asked the ambassador on December 29, 2016 to, as CNBC reported, "refrain from escalating the situation in response to sanctions that the United States had imposed against Russia that same day" while Barack Obama was still President.  Trump had opposed the sanctions and Flynn apparently was trying to tell Kislyak to stay calm and wait for the incoming administration to take charge and initiate a friendly relationship.

Even if you don't think Russian intervention caused Trump to win the Presidency - I think they intervened in the election but I don't think they were instrumental in Trump's victory -  Flynn has been under investigation for allegedly planning a kidnapping and a Turkish cleric living in exile in the U.S. and having him sent back to Turkey.  And if all that weren't mind-boggling enough, Trump has now tweeted that he fired Flynn for lying to the FBI about his meeting with Kislyak, suggesting that he knew all along that Flynn had lied when he asked then-FBI Director James Comey and was therefore trying to obstruct justice.  Then, of course, he later fired James Comey.

Trump could be forced out of office soon.  But as far as preventing him from doing irreparable damage to the country, it's already too late.

Because the Senate just passed its tax reform bill by a 51-49 margin. Bob Corker of Tennessee was the only Republican to vote against it.  They got it through after last-minute revisions to the bill that, I understand, were written on the back of a Chinese takeout menu.  And even though the differences between the Senate bill and the House bill have to be worked out in a bicameral conference, no one thinks there'll be any problems with that.  And Trump, the chief instigator of tax reform, will proudly sign it before the first day of Kwanzaa and rhetorically ask black voters what they could possibly have to lose.

The final bill will likely eliminate state and local tax deductions and possibly also eliminate the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate and thus possibly eliminate . . . the Affordable Care Act.  The biggest benefits go to the wealthy, and the pressure on the deficit will mean cuts to public assistance and the sort of amenities that make a country worth living in.  

Because of procedural rules, there's nothing the Democrats could do to stop this bill, and to be fair, they didn't have the time or the ability to digest or even read the last-minute changes to it.  But the Democrats did a lame job in opposing it, concentrating more on the deficit than on the threat to domestic spending and, as a result, arguing against the tax bill on the basis of Republican talking points, which did the Democrats no favors.  They only tipped the scales to the GOP in the debate, and scale-tipping is something Hillary supporters know a thing or two about.   The pressure this tax law will put on expensive, Democratic-leaning states will short-circuit the progressive agenda and doom incoming New Jersey governor Phil Murphy to failure before he's even sworn in.

Thus, despite Democratic victories in  2017 gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, the party has gone back to going full Whig. 

On the bright side, now that tax reform is all but done, maybe Republicans, no longer needing Trump to pass their agenda, will go ahead and help remove him from office.