This story first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
Nice work. Reminds me of the analysis the famous investigative team Barlett and Steele did on the 1986 tax bill. Lots of little Easter eggs like these tucked away in that thing.
The Ghost of Leona Helmsley lives!!
WOW… Who Knew.
AHH… just about anybody who pays attention. This would not include anyone in the GOP and most in the major media. The ONLY thing the GOP cares about is the 1% and Corporations. I am surprised they are not pushing to give corporations the vote.
She should be named the patron saint of the GOP
Any politician that states this legislation was simply intended to help small businesses is lying. A simple cap on income eligibility could have precluded these huge savings for key ultra-wealthy campaign donors. The system is rotten because the managers are thieving opportunists. Johnson is a poster boy!
Sounds like the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was actually just a very successful heist.
One question, why was this secret from the people who would be footing the bill?
A great way to set the stage for the necessary tax code changes this country needs. I like the way this Administration plays politics, as they will control the narrative, not the Republican Party. Expect more of these types of public statements/assessments in the near future. Overwhelm the Republican Party and let them try to rationally respond. I bet it’s a shock to the Republican leadership - it’s as if the Democrats actually have a plan.
Nah. She was a little too direct in her disdain for the “little people”. Today’s GOP has perfected the art of fleecing their supporters while convincing them they’re all on the same team against “those people”.
That’s where the racism held by those not in the 1% fits in
It’s an inoculation against the rage the former should feel.
ProPublica is doing the absolute best investigative journalism out there today. In my opinion, anyone who values democracy would be better off sending any money they are thinking about donating to a political candidate to ProPublica instead.
This is the same argument that is always used with the estate tax. “All those small family businesses and farms built up over decades” will get decimated if we tax the Devos’ or Kochs for a single penny. Of course, if those “small businesses and family farms” were that important, the laws could be written to accommodate them which tells you that they are merely the poster children used to hide the true beneficiaries.
If this is a ticklish question I understand, but I’ve never heard of ProPublica outside of TPM. Do they have this kind of arrangement with other news outlets? This really is first-rate stuff and unfortunately nobody but the richest legacy publishers can afford it any more. I remember back in the Eighties there was plenty of money at any big metro paper to do this. Barlett and Steele worked for the Inquirer back then, as I recall, and if memory continues to serve they worked on that tax bill for a year. That would represent an investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars that few could afford today. Just wondering.
Because they wouldn’t like it? 
IMO today the GOP rubes are so dumbed-down that they would agree with Leona
Aren’t the many separate entities that make up the Trump Organization also pass-throughs? If so, why did Ron Johnson need to argue for this? I’d have expected them to be in Section 1 of the original bill.
Great article. I always knew in my gut that the tax cut was for the wealthy (and my overall taxes actually went up after the “cut”), but this article spells it all out in a very understandable way. Thanks!
Socialism for the wealthy is quite popular. No crumbs for the rest of us.
Why do bank robbers wear masks? 