Christmas tax cookies

Trickle-down Republicans are going to get their way: The tax plan they have (largely in secret) cobbled together in Congress will pass; there will be more wealth for the wealthy; and in the end the jobless and impoverished will see their taxes rise. Republicans -- against a vast majority of savvy economists -- are employing the "trickle down" model ... if the rich get richer, the lives of the average working stiff will improve.

Supporters of the 'overhaul' are devotees of the Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels' philosophy -- if you tell a lie long enough and fervently enough, eventually people will believe it. I don't know if even Goebbels could have conceived the victory the Republicans are about to win. Tax relief for the wealthy will be permanent. Tax relief for the working classes will run out sometime in the next decade and they will end up paying higher taxes. Donald Trump, the current president of the United States, calls the whole thing a "Christmas present" for all Americans.

There are some doubters:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The tax overhaul of 2017 amounts to a high-stakes gamble by Republicans in Congress: That slashing taxes for corporations and wealthy individuals will accelerate growth and assure greater prosperity for Americans for years to come.

The risks are considerable.

A wide range of economists and nonpartisan analysts have warned that the bill will likely escalate federal debt, intensify pressure to cut spending on social programs and further widen America's troubling income inequality.

The bad stuff -- the tax increases and the ramped-up assault on programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security -- all take place after the 2018 mid-term elections, a time when do-nothing and accomplish-nothing Republicans face a potential challenge to their majorities in Congress. They need some good news to leaven that threat.

America has yet to benefit under a Republican administration.

OK, I know ... so what else is new?