Letter: Republicans’ ‘win’ is a loss for America

If the president regards this new tax law as a win, I’d hate to see what a loss looks like.

Then again, from the viewpoint of those he’s sworn to serve, it’s certainly a win; the corridors of donors like Goldman Sachs are filled with millionaires grinning from ear to ear contemplating the new toys they can buy and leave to their heirs.

We shouldn’t forget that these humongous gifts to the wealthy, with a few crumbs for the rest of us, were all charged to the nation’s credit card.

We can debate whether this handout was fair or not (it was not), but a more important point is that the overall economy is good, so this is a time to pay down the debt, not to stimulate an economy that doesn’t need stimulus (See Genesis 41:41-56 about Joseph in Egypt).

In the not-very-distant future, Republican leaders will profess to be shocked, absolutely shocked, that annual deficits and the national debt are growing uncontrollably.

They’ll then tearfully conclude that we can no longer afford Social Security, Medicare and other assistance programs that have brought dignity to our least fortunate citizens for decades.

Actually, destruction of those programs was the Republican strategy in the first place.

This story was originally published January 22, 2018 at 4:49 PM with the headline "Letter: Republicans’ ‘win’ is a loss for America."