This week, Senate Republicans managed to pass a revision of the tax code in the Senate that will presumably end up on President Trump's desk within the coming weeks. The $1.47 trillion bill was passed 51-49 with solely Republican votes, as all but one Republican Senator, Bob Corker of Tennessee, voted along party lines. Not a single Democratic Senator supported the legislation. The bill's passing marks a major victory for Republican legislators under the Trump administration.
However, the bill has many aspects that are troubling to Democratic legislators as well as lobbying groups and other third parties. The bill reduces the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%, and reduces income taxes in general. Republicans have branded the bill as a tax cut for the middle class. It's true that as of now the middle class would experience a mild tax cut. Yet these individual cuts are set to expire after six years, so the middle class remains vulnerable to future tax increases if Congress does not act in the future to extend them. Meanwhile, cuts for corporations are permanent. Furthermore, the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation reported that the tax cut would increase the national debt by $1 trillion over the coming ten years, even when economic growth is taken into account.
Many aspects of the bill are being decried as being part of a larger culture war that is taking place across blue and red America. Individuals in states such as California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois will see an increase in their taxes. These states are home to the sanctuary cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and others, that have by and large resisted the new policies put forward by the Trump administration. The Republican tax bill prohibits individuals in these high-tax states from deducting their state and local income taxes off of their federal bill. The new plan would also make college and higher education in general far more expensive and therefore further out of reach for middle and low-income families. "I think [the bill]'s part of a culture war...no question," states Philip Altbach, a research professor and founding director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College. "It is part of an anti-higher education general feeling about what the role of higher education is in society and so on. I do think [colleges and universities] should see it as a warning."
Trump himself has remained engaged with the legal investigation over Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election, sending out a number of tweets that have startled lawmakers. On Saturday Trump tweeted, "I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President (Mike Pence) and the FBI." He followed with a tweet stating that he had never asked James Comey, the former director of the FBI, to stop investigating Michael Flynn, the president's former national security adviser, which contradicts Comey's account of events. Furthermore, if Trump knew that Flynn lied to the FBI and then put pressure on Comey not to investigate him, it could warrant a charge of obstruction of justice - which would be grounds for impeachment.
