I truly hope I'm wrong, but I have such a high distrust of the Establishment Republicans, especially within the Senate, that I can't help but be suspicious of yesterday's developments.
First, the House of Representatives passed the Tax Reform Act easily, and sent it on to the Senate, which in turn "passed" it ..., or did they??? After they corrected some unnamed "rules violations" that the Senate could not vote for, then they passed it, and sent it back to the House, to be voted on again! I thought they were supposed to fix these kinds of things in conference, before they voted on the "final" bill??? I can't imagine that they "accidentally" allowed it out of conference, with these kinds of errors in it, unless they intended to have an excuse to vote it down, without incurring the wrath of the voters in doing so! But, if they seemed to pass it, with corrections that they know the House will not approve, then they can blame the House for not passing it, and they might escape the wrath of their voters. Or, the House will make further corrections, that the Senate can not accept, and they will thusly send the bill back and forth, endlessly, until they tire of putting off their vacation, and simply table it until January! That way they can tell their voters that they "tried to pass it", but the other side of the Congress messed it up! Yeah, sure!!! [UPDATE: I'm pleased to admit that my suspicions were apparently groundless and the bill was finally passed, around 1:00 this afternoon!] I guess the instinct to get re-elected finally got through to them (except for the Democrats!)]
Like I said, for the sake of all of us, I truly hope I'm wrong , but this is the kind of dishonest manipulation that has been going on all year, and I fail to see a significant difference in Congress's behavior, yesterday. They work diligently to appear that they are standing for righteousness, enough to keep their jobs, when they are actually serving themselves at the public trough, sucking up the taxpayer's "slop", like the pigs they are!!! Would that we could clean house of all of them, and get some honest work done, that would benefit all of us, rather than just themselves, and their "special interests", who fill their re-election coffers with graft.
On November 15th., I posted my most erroneous statement yet, when I blamed Mitch McConnell for trying to attach the Affordable Care Act repeal on the tax reform bill in the Senate, with the apparent intent that it would ensure the Senate would reject it , as they rejected it twice before. Less than two hours later, after being corrected by watching the "700 Club", I discovered that they really only attached the "Individual Mandate" clause to it, and I immediately corrected my error, by attaching an update to my earlier Post. After discovering a large amount of "Pageviewers" had clicked my Post, I further updated it to say that I would promise to delete my entire Post, as soon as the entire Congress passed the Tax Reform bill, and sent it on to the President, to sign before the end of the year. (Done, today!!! 12/20/2017.) But, I vowed to remain skeptical of their sincerity, until it was finally passed, and sent to the President, in time to sign it this year!
I now have to confess my suspicion that they are "playing fast, and loose" with us all, by appearing willing to vote for passage of the Tax bill, this year, but bowing to "unforeseen circumstances" (which they may have created for themselves, intentionally) that may force the passage into 2018. That way the beneficial effects of it will not be felt until after the 2018 midterm elections, giving the Democrats a realistic opportunity to regain control of the Congress (because Trump's administration "can't get anything done"). I've said all along that I felt the Establishment Republicans were more at ease with the Democrats than the Trump administration, because they could manipulate them into lucrative perks, in exchange for their votes, and the Democrats would be blamed if they hurt their constituents, with whatever they voted for.
[The above sentiment remains unchanged. But, the concern does not, as the Republicans finally got something done, and passed the Tax Reform Act, today; in time for it to be signed into law this year, so it will take effect immediately, in 2018, with time for it's beneficial effects to take place before the Mid-term elections! (Good luck, Democrats! Let's see how your obstructionist strategy works when people get more money in their paychecks, and remember that you tried to stop it from happening!!!)
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