Mitch McConnell's Not So Secret Desire

One of the most irksome things about Se. Mitch McConnell is his complete inability to see his responsibility as a US Senator beyond the most blatant political calculation. There is no pretense of serving a greater good, just victory for his side and defeat for all others.  Consider when Barack Obama was first elected President, McConnell said the number one goal was to defeat Obama's agenda. Not serve the America people. No, the number one goal was the defeat of a political rival.

 

Let the American people sort themselves out. The important thing is saying "no" to everything Obama wanted.  And McConnell followed that thesis with a myopic certainty right through to Obama's last day in office. 

 

And Mitch McConnell is still on the job of saying "no".  

 

Get a load of this. 

 

45 Senate Democrats  outlined in a letter how they want tax reform to proceed. 

 

1.    Pass the bill through regular legislation rather than budget reconciliation. "Budget reconciliation" is a process to get a bill through the senate on a simple majority. With budget reconciliation, McConnel just needs to get 50 Republican Senators with a tie breaker vote from the Vice President to get something through. Budget reconciliation means McConnell doesn't have to even talk to those stinky Democrats; they're probably loaded with cooties. The Democrats counter they have no cooties so no budget reconciliation, 'kay? 

2.    The bill must be revenue neutral. 

3.    The bill must not deliver a net tax cut to the highest-earning one percent.

 

These are not impossible demands.  The 1986 Tax Reform Act did it. Currently, ideas for tax reform that would meet these criteria as out forth by ax scholars at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. 

 

Mitch McConnell's response to the Democrats' missive is best summarized as "oh hell no." Instead, McConnell is aiming for 51 Republican votes for a reconciliation bill.

Since McConnell has himself said that he favors a revenue-neutral tax reform, we can only assume the deal breaker is the insistence that tax reform should not give the super-duper rich people a tax cut. 

 

Much like the McConnell led Obamacare repeal debacle, the goal is less actually getting anything done than to defeat a rival. In this case, shutting the Democrats completely out of the tax reform process.  Apparently McConnell wasn't listening when John McCain said, "Hey! Here's a thought. Why don't we work together to get something done?"

 

Because Mitch McConnell isn't interested in actually getting anything done. No, his not so secret desire to shut down everyone else and advance his own petty needs. 

 

So Mitch McConnell is really suited to government in the age of Donald Trump.

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Politics. It's a bummer, huh?

 

Tomorrow is Doctor Who time. Yay!

 

With the upcoming meeting of the 12th Doctor and the 1st Doctor, I'm presenting in one handy-dandy post a three episode fan fiction I posted back in the Winter of 2014, a tale of the 11th Doctor meeting his original incarnation.

 

"All Roads Lead To Trenzalore".

 

Until then, remember to be good to one another