Neverland is, or at least was, a fictional place created by J. M. Barrie, where childhood and childishness never ended. Unfortunately, for all of us, a real version of Neverland is pushing aside our rational boundaries.

This week, the Senate of the least popular Republican Congress in decades is shaping up a tax bill that is the least popular bill in recent decades (even including Obamacare) to present it to the least popular president in seven decades. And they are giddy to get it accomplished.

Yes, our Republican friends are not troubled that a majority of voters think their “middle class tax cut” is actually a tax cut for the wealthy and big corporations who do not need a tax cut. And few polled think the tax cut will either create jobs or bolster the economy. Most Americans see the tax bill for what it is, a gift to Republican donors and a thumb in the eye to every non-rich American.

Consider these conclusions about the tax plan by the Joint Tax Commission of Congress: 44 percent of Americans will not get the “huge” tax cut our president so easily promised; by 2027 only 16 percent of Americans will get a tax cut of at least $100 dollars and many Americans will get a tax increase. The biggest “winners” are Americans earning over $100,000. The other winners are corporations who get their tax cuts and keep their deductions while you lose your deductions.

But the greatest gift will just keep on giving. To pay for the tax breaks for people other than you, Medicare and Medicaid funding will be cut, infrastructure funding, already nearly impossible to fund, will not exist, and shoring up Social Security will have no resources to pay its growing costs.

When undertaking tax reform Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch Leader McConnell, R-Kentucky,  once called for revenue neutrality. Now they propose a plan that will create a $1.4 trillion deficit in 10 years, according to the JTC assessment.

And this when what is most solely needed is responsible tax reform that increases treasury income to fund infrastructure, Social Security, Medicare and the ACA to insure our health and aging population and protect our most vulnerable citizens.

A few years ago, retired U.S. Sens. Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, President Clinton’s one-time chief of staff, Republican and Democratic respectfully, joined together to fashion a path towards fiscal responsibility. This week they published their assessment of the new tax plan.

Their words ring not of the current childish approach of the Republicans “spend now, pay later,” but of reason and thoughtfulness:

“We called for a more internationally competitive corporate tax code but also pressed for continued investment in education, infrastructure and high-value-added research so that the United States can compete effectively in the knowledge-based global economy. We also said tax reform should raise $1 trillion in revenue for debt reduction and be paired with spending cuts and reforms of entitlement programs to bring spending growth under control.”

Let us all hope that this terrible plan to give to the rich and take from the poor is seen by just a handful of honest Republican senators for the childish folly it is and the tax bill, in any of its current forms, is killed forever.

Let the imaginary world of Neverland, so absurdly enabled by a fantasy speaking president, be pushed aside by a few patriots who can be counted on to remember their service is to a great nation and its people, not a madcap leader who tweets falsehoods and calls truth “fake news.”

 

Jim Crawford is a retired educator and political enthusiast living here in the Tri-State.