Matthew Yglesias at Bloomberg:
But there is an even more breathtaking example of the conservative movement’s priorities. As a condition for agreeing to Kevin McCarthy’s accession to the speakership, House rightists secured a commitment for a floor vote on a ludicrous proposal they call the Fair Tax Act.
The legislation would replace the current income tax, payroll tax and estate tax with a 30% national sales tax. Except to make it sound better, Fair Tax proponents call it a 23% tax. Their logic is that if something sells for $100 plus $30 in tax, then it’s a 23% tax — because $30 is 23% of $130.
That’s not how calculations of tax rates work. The reason for this dodgy math is that they are trying to obscure the reality that this plan would make most people worse off. According to the Tax Policy Center, in 2018 the middle quintile of the income distribution paid 8.9% of federal taxes while earning 15.2% of national income. Switching that to a flat consumption-based rate would be a tax increase on those middle-income households and an even larger one on the bottom 40%.
Eric Levitz at New York magazine looks at the GOP reliance on democratic dysfunction:
Trump may not win renomination in 2024. And the GOP may never again evince as much interest in thwarting the peaceful transfer of power as it did two years ago. But if the Republican Party has grown less hostile to democracy’s formal structures, it remains as antagonistic as ever to its actual substance.
The conservative movement’s antipathy for popular sovereignty did not begin with Donald Trump, but rather the New Deal. The modern American right was born to defend the anti-majoritarian preferences of reactionary business elites. And although it has undergone many transformations in the 90 years since FDR’s election, maximizing the wealth and power of such elites remains the movement’s core commitment. If anything, the myriad culture war concerns that have displaced “small government” themes in the right’s messaging have only increased the legislative centrality of its plutocratic project. In the Trump era, congressional Republicans could not agree on immigration policy or the propriety of the president’s Twitter feed. What gave the party common purpose and a governing agenda was its unifying desire to slash taxes on the wealthy and corporations, at a time of historically high inequality and corporate profits.
And here’s Steve Benen at NBC on the GOP’s policy cynicism and their claim of a national ban on gas stoves:
Among the things to remember about this is a simple truth: Republicans know how dumb this is. They know Biden, wrench in hand, will not confiscate any household appliances.
But the party can’t shake its reliance on juvenile antics. The focus on Dr. Seuss, Potato Head dolls, and inefficient lightbulbs has given way to pointless rhetoric about gas ovens and executive orders about critical race theory in states in which no schools teach critical race theory.
Republicans do this for a variety of reasons, none of which is especially compelling: The party enjoys scoring cheap points, keeping activists they see as fools fully engaged, providing fodder for conservative media, and creating the basis for new fundraising gimmicks.
Paul Krugman provides his latest analysis on the Biden economy:
If the midterm elections could be rerun this month, Democrats would probably end up in full control of Congress. President Biden’s approval ratings are rising. Inflation is down, and consumers are feeling more optimistic. And Americans are getting a better look at the G.O.P.’s actual policy agenda, which is deeply unpopular.
OK, we don’t give politicians who lost an election the opportunity for a mulligan, even when they falsely claim that the election was stolen. But it is, I think, worth noting just how much the economic and hence political environment has shifted in the past few months, and to start thinking seriously about the possibility that Democrats might be in a startlingly strong position next year.
And on a final note, here is an update on the Republican MAGA candidate who has been arrested for shooting at homes of elected Democrats:
The authorities in Albuquerque said on Monday that a former Republican candidate who lost his bid for a State House seat in November had been arrested in connection with a series of recent shootings at the homes of four Democratic elected officials.
Chief Harold Medina of the Albuquerque Police Department said at a news conference that the former candidate, Solomon Peña, was “the mastermind” behind a conspiracy in which four other men were paid to shoot at the homes of two county commissioners and two state legislators.
Mr. Peña, 39, lost the election on Nov. 8 in a landslide to an incumbent Democrat, Miguel P. Garcia. Days later, Mr. Peña went on Twitter to express support for former President Donald J. Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and to say that he had not conceded his own State House race.
Georgia Logothetis
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