Columnist: GOP tax bill is, "worst law...since the Fugitive Slave Act"

The push to derail the Republican tax bill is getting so frenzied, opponents are going beyond hyperbolic in their opposition. The latest of these bloviating, hyperventilating malcontents is Philly.com columnist Will Bunch, who hurriedly typed over the weekend the tax bill is so horrific, only one law trumps it (pun intended).

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There’s a reason the tax bill is so unpopular. It’s a terrible idea – arguably, if approved, the worst law to be enacted on Capitol Hill since the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which allowed the return of captured escaped slaves up North to their whip-cracking masters down South. I’d argue that it’s worse, for example, than the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that escalated the Vietnam War in 1964 – because at least then senators honestly trusted a White House that was bamboozling them about the underlying facts. Here, House and Senate Republicans know exactly what they’re doing.

That sound you hear is me slamming my head into a brick wall until I’m blissfully unconscious and can’t pay attention to any of this rubbish anymore. It’s one of the most ridiculous paragraphs I’ve ever read, and destroys the rest of his argument. Of course, this is the same sect of political thought which suggested Paul Ryan would gleefully throw grandma off a cliff in 2012.

For a minute, let’s take Bunch at face value that this bill tops only the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, and maybe the Gulf of Tonkin resolution.

This means laws like The Patriot Act, which has allowed the NSA to spy on Americans via secret warrants; Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which created the “blue gloves of freedom” of the TSA; Defense of Marriage Act, which was the federal government ridiculously getting involved in marriage; Prohibition, which went wonderfully during the 1920’s; National Industrial Recovery Act, which the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional, and included a rule banning buyers from picking the chicken they wanted; The Alien and Seditions Acts, which tamped down on speech against the government, put a sitting congressman in prison, set the first immigration restrictions on the country, and later allowed FDR to establish Japanese internment camps; Federal Possession and Control Act, which nationalized railroads and led to the creation of that wonderfully profitable federally-owned company called Amtrak; Chinese Exclusion Act, which kept the Chinese from even becoming American citizens after they immigrated to the U.S.; Indian Removal Act, which lead to the Trail of Tears; and War Powers Resolution, which has done nothing to really clear up what the definition of commander-in-chief, and has enabled the notion of “Team America: World Police.”

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I’m not even touching the hot-button issue laws, including one Congress ‘tried’ to overturn this year, and spectacularly failed, discussing why laws enabling entitlement programs hurt the economy more than help, or why more regulation of what businesses can or can’t do, ends up enabling the elite they claim to push against. Other dumb laws can be found @crimeaday.

I reached out to FreedomWorks Vice President for Legislative Affairs Vice President Jason Pye, who didn’t mince words on this senseless, and inane piece by Bunch.

This is the kind of incendiary rhetoric we’ve heard from the left over the Tax and Jobs Act. It’s absolutely absurd and beyond laughable. Nancy Pelosi literally used apocalyptic rhetoric invoking Armageddon in her opposition to the bill. Others face said people will die, because why not say something stupid like that since there aren’t any actual substantive reasons to oppose this bill. Then you have people like this commentator, who has written the dumbest piece I’ve ever read. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is going to increase incomes across the board, and it’s going to make the United States more competitive by bringing the corporate income tax in line with the rest of the world. After eight years of economic policies that led to slow growth and stagnant wages, this tax bill should be passed.

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Pye is more in favor of the legislation than I am, because I think spending cuts are needed to offset the loss of revenue going into government coffers. There are other issues I, along with other tax cut fans, have with the bill, and the fact it’s over a thousand pages makes me queasy, as well. A friend of mine commented there’s nothing wrong with hyperbole regarding a bad bill, and it shouldn’t be surprising inflated statements are made during debate. But come on, people. The idea this bill is somehow only topped by the Fugitive Slave Act is just stupid. It makes the rest of his article, and his argument, pointless. Bunch should know better.

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | December 16, 2024
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