Make no mistake about it

Make no mistake about it: “Conservative” Republicans voted in favor of their tax plan because their wealthy campaign donors required it.  Their tax plan doesn’t “conserve” our economy… it weakens it! It doesn’t “conserve” equality… it widens inequality!  And it doesn’t “conserve” our national debt… it increases the national debt by $1,500,000,000,000 over the next decade.   And how do these Republicans convince their gullible middle class “Conservative” voting followers to support their tax plan?  Myths, myths and more myths….
 
The “Conservative” Republican manure being spread to promote their tax plan spins around the myth that foreign corporations are taxed at lower rates than US corporations, the myth that tax cuts on big corporations and the wealthy will create more jobs in America (trickle down economics), and the myth that tax cuts will provide incentives for small businesses to invest and create more jobs.  History and corporate nature have proven these claims to be myths.
 
Big corporations already have so much money that (thanks to Citizen’s United) they can now fund huge campaigns for Congressional Representatives so that once elected they will channel public money in their direction.  Americans should understand that when voting for a Republican they are voting for a Representative of big corporations of whom many shareholders are foreigners.  The additional trillion dollars in tax cuts will only raise their corporate executives pay and result in decreasing investments in American education, healthcare, the environment and jobs…. The “Conservative” Republican tax plan doesn’t trickle down as history showed during the tax cuts of Reagan era economics.  During this era, salaries of the middle class actually dropped and families needed two incomes to survive.   With the “conservative” Republican tax plan the middle class will have less income because they’ll be paying more for health care, quality education, clean air and water, food…. The “conservative” Republican tax plan won’t change most of small businesses because they already pay the lowest corporate tax rate.  In fact, the tax plan will make it easier for big corporations to under- cut local small companies and thus force them out of business.
 
The “conservative” Republican tax plan primarily benefits the wealthy 1% who already own 40% of the total wealth in America… the middle class is disappearing.  To believe otherwise is the mythology intended by Republicans to confuse and divide us as a nation.  We no longer have a democracy in America founded upon the principles of “for the people and by the people” but an engineered take over of our elections by “Dark Money” from the wealthy 1% and by a Congressional gerrymandered electorate which is kept divided, politically uneducated and/or misguided by corporate owned media myths and deliberate lies.   “Conservative” Republicans have lied to the American people about the long term impact their tax plan will have on the middle class (what’s left of it).   Their tax plan is an immoral scam; so remember this the next time you are tempted to vote for them.
 
 
Mark S. Chapman

Editor's Note: A different version of this op-ed originally appeared in the January 4th edition of Louisa County's paper of record, the Central Virginian, and has been re-posted on this blog with the author's permission.