$1.5 Trillion GOP Tax Cut Thread

[BlueSwan]

Sorry for asking a stupid question. I haven't been following the tax debacle all that closely. How are the senate getting around the Byrd rule to pass this with 51 votes?

[BlueSwan]

But the benefits all go to the Master Class this time.

If I were 30 years younger and had the chance and means with which to emigrate, I would, especially if I had children. A political system that puts the enrichment of elites above all else and treats formal education as seditious is a place for only the super-rich and those willing to be consigned to losing.

It would be far easier to learn a Slavic language than to do well in the aristocratic America now forming.

Don't give up on the US! In many ways a fantastic country, that is just currently on a wrong path. I live in a great country, but I have to say that I also loved the one year I lived in the US more than 20 years. That's why I still love the country and still follow US politics after all this time. If the democrats can find a way to get people to freakin' vote, then everything is there for the taking to make the US as great as it could be!

[BlueSwan]

Running on raising taxes is always gonna be super risky and democrats knows it. That's why they are so depressed right now and probably why the GOP end up supporting this terrible bill. Even if it is unpopular it is probably electorally powerful because it is so easy to attack anyone who is running on higher taxes.

[BlueSwan]

Sorry for asking a stupid question. I haven't been following the tax debacle all that closely. How are the senate getting around the Byrd rule to pass this with 51 votes?

I'd like to see an answer to that too.

I don't think anybody answered this, or did I miss it?

[BlueSwan]

Sorry for asking a stupid question. I haven't been following the tax debacle all that closely. How are the senate getting around the Byrd rule to pass this with 51 votes?

I'd like to see an answer to that too.

I don't think anybody answered this, or did I miss it?

They used the FY 2018 reconciliation instructions for this bill, so they only needed 51 votes period.

The vast majority of tax proposals are related to the budget, so it's not that hard to construe an all-encompassing tax bill without violating the Byrd Rule. Some minor stuff was removed but overall the bill doesn't increase the deficit after 10 years (due to budget gimmicks) so it passes the Byrd Rule.

Thank you for the explanation.

Is the lesson from this that the senate can pass just about anything with 51 votes as long as they employ the right shenanigans?