"We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes." – Leona Helmsley
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I doubt they actually believe it. All they need is to be able to announce they demanded this and that and got commitment from Turtle/Moron about this and that (e.g., look at Susan Collin’s Twitter feed where she keeps bragging on and on about how so many fantabulous changes she has secured). They don’t care. Therefore they will never, ever try to follow up and follow through about the “demands” they made and claim they’ve secured.
They. Don’t. Care.
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You know your characterization isn’t hyperbole, right?
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Getting protections for those kids is what I hope comes out of it,” he told reporters Friday. “Obviously they can’t commit to do that. But they committed to move forward with me and work with me on it.” Flake said he was given no promise as to when a DACA deal would be made,
Between Flake, Collins…it’s hard to tell who is more gullible and full of merde’…they are a disgrace to America…condemning Americans to death and financial destitution.Oh and let’s not forget Mc Cain…anything you say going forward needs to be ignored due to disingenuous duplicy.
You are exactly correct and it is what they are (sort of) reporting over on Fox.
But that pertains only to what happens after the scheduled expiration of cuts. The Times makes no mention of the cuts the middle class would see under the plan next year, or of the fact that Republicans are counting on the cuts to be extended. The expiration at the end of 2025 is widely seen as a “budget gimmick” to minimize the apparent impact on the deficit and keep the impact under $1.5 trillion over 10 years, easing the way for passage under Senate rules.
Republicans used a similar trick in 2001 and 2003, when they passed the Bush tax cuts with a 2013 expiration date. When 2013 came around, all the individual rate cuts were made permanent by then-President Barack Obama and a divided Congress, except for cuts on people making more than $400,000 a year.
Some Republicans already are calling for cut extensions this time around. In a Fox News op-ed Monday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., wrote: “Want them to be permanent? Well, one good start is to keep extending them, every single year.”
“Media twist tax plan studies to claim it hammers middle class”, By Maxim Lott under their “Bias Alert” heading (ugh).
I have to believe Flake and Collins don’t believe their precious promises from Trump mean anything, it’s less than paper thin cover. I need help, wheeling and dealing is the Washington Game, but when did such worthless promises become the norm? Just Trump?
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No, honey, you’re naive for thinking that Sen. Flake is naive. He knows exactly what he is doing: burnishing his reputation as an independent-thinking mavericky type (McCain 2.0!) while voting for all the legislation that he was always going to support.
It’s a role that Susan Collins and John McCain have been playing for years, and they have gotten enormous amounts of praise for their “statesmanship.” Jeff Flake would like some more of that praise, too, now that he’s stumbled into it. What you–and the entire goddamned American press–have swallowed whole is this strange idea that to dislike Trump means that you are on the side of the angels; and to be on the side of the angels means that you must be against the Trump agenda.
Sweetheart, the Trump agenda IS the GOP agenda, just expressed more crudely. If Flake has any objections to the tax bill, it’s probably that it doesn’t also try to ban abortion or some such thing. He doesn’t give a fuck about DACA, but it’s the sort of declaration that makes him look good, let’s him posture that he’s going along with the party for the good of the children, the chhhhhhiiiiiiilllllllldren!
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Between Flake, Collins…it’s hard to tell who is more gullible and full of merde
Sigh. They are NOT “gullible.” They are not “naive.” They are roleplaying–and incredibly transparently, too. If you think that any of these “independent” politicians are little Pollyannas, wandering around believing the best of everyone…
Well, I guess I have a tower in Paris you might like to buy. I’ve got the deed right here!
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He should have sold his soul for a damn sight more.
But he didn’t.
At all.
He’s supporting the tax bill because he likes it. That’s it. He’s just maintaining his new cred as The Republican Who Cares About, You Know, Stuff.
I know the American public’s institutional memory only goes back a few nanoseconds, but research the voting records of these Thoughtful Republicans: They always fall into line. Always. They posture and pose and pretend to think deep thoughts about a particular piece of legislation–they don’t automatically fall into line, no, never them!–and then, after receiving a lot of positive press, they…fall into line.
Always.
Flake, McCain, Collins, Murkowsky and all the rest of them always fall into line because they really, really LIKE the line.
I will never understand why people fall for this so readily, especially people who are the least bit lefty–I mean, aren’t we supposed to be the ones who think critically, the ones who don’t simply fall for shiny appearances???
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FIFY! 
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Oh yeah, and then tRump comes out with this defense for Michael Flynn (per TPM editorial)
The top responses from the White House today have been, first, “everybody lies in Washington”
So I’d like to see reporters ask these Senator’s “When Trump say’s everyone lies, why do you think you’re the special person he won’t lie too?”
You can’t make this shit up. This is the final version of the tax scam they are voting on tonight. Handwritten text here and there in the margins. And nobody has even read it.
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Corker is a No. I’m glad he plans to vote No, then again, this is all after he knows for sure he isn’t a decisive vote.
secured by a promise from Senate leadership and the White House to include him in negotiations around a permanent fix for DACA recipients
I get this feeling that the ‘no’ vote Republicans sat down with leadership after some reborn Machiavelli assigned magical solutions to the big bad bully issues created by the President, and doled them out… “Lisa, you get the health care mandate, Jeff, you get to save DACA… see, you both look like you care while we kill all of these programs!”
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Useless to the end.
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The pic at the top of the article shows Sen Flake with a shit-eating grin.
Now we know today that the man literally figuratively eats shit with this vote swap.
There is much about the current state of Washington that is crazy. (Worth checking out Andrew Sullivan’s weekly piece, BTW.) But this spectacle of so many GOP Senators – who are not inexperienced naive babes in the woods, most of these folks have been operating at the highest levels of power for decades – lining up to proclaim their belief in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy all at the same time is a real head-scratcher.
Well, actually, it’s probably a good measure of the huge level of behind-the-scenes pressure from the monied interests to deliver the damn tax boodle already, and the resulting desperation to get some kind of tax cut, any kind of tax cut, passed.
Never mind that it shafts the middle class, or that it wrecks health care, or destroys graduate education at most of our top schools, or tanks the economy or shoots Bambi’s mother or whatever. This is about the money.
(Image embedded).
https://twitter.com/TopherSpiro/status/936760354637533184
- She is getting pounded on Twitter.
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Flake, you’re not running for re-election. Wouldn’t this be the PERFECT time to demonstrate that you have something of a proto-spine, and/or a pair of huevo’s and DO THE RIGHT THING!
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ATTN: My fellow Pennsylvanians.
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