Amodei sat down with the RGJ editorial board on May 15. RGJ Editorial Board



Congressional Republicans have finally achieved legislative victory in the form of a massive tax overhaul that will accelerate the country's descent into unsustainable and immoral inequality. To reward Congressman Amodei and Senator Heller for their complicity in passing the plan, we Nevadans must show up in force next November to vote both of them out of office.

To be fair, most Nevadans will probably see a modest increase in their post-tax income as a result of this bill, especially with the doubling of the standard deduction. However, Republicans chose to ram this hastily written bill through without bipartisan participation of Democrats or any substantive debate about its provisions. The result is a perfect example of Republicans' insatiable appetite for slashing taxes for their corporate and billionaire donors with marginal benefits for the majority of their constituents. This has, incidentally or purposefully, led to massive tax handouts for many wealthy Republican politicians, including the current president of the United States.

More: Heller and Amodei, 'mine' your damn business: Marigny
More: Why is Heller supporting tax bill?: duPre

Since the Reagan era, Republicans have single-mindedly adhered to the doctrine of supply-side, trickle-down economics. They continually use a debunked theory that has no basis in reality or backing from most economists to justify corporate and upper class welfare, arguing that additional cash will allow those businesses and billionaires to create jobs, increase wages and bring prosperity to all Americans. Despite having moved from a top tax rate of 90 percent in the 1960s gradually to our current rate of less than 40 percent, this has not been borne out historically. In addition, many of our most massive companies are already sitting on billions of dollars parked in offshore tax havens, with the companies preferring not to invest in American communities and wage growth. The minimum wage has increased in recent years only through the laudable efforts of grass-roots organizations and local and state lawmakers.

Passage of this ill-conceived bill shows that Republicans still cling to this myth to appease their wealthy backers, and they will do so at all costs even if it throws the country into dangerous and unconscionable levels of inequality. In the 2017 World Economic Forum "inclusive development index," the U.S. ranks 23rd out of 30 developed nations in wealth concentration, between Estonia and Japan. The populist promises of the 2016 presidential election have been abandoned for Republicans' true priorities.



Despite already-high levels of inequality and lack of evidence that tax cuts for the wealthy benefit ordinary Americans or the economy as a whole, Congressman Amodei and Senator Heller have continued on the GOP bandwagon undeterred and shamefully unapologetic. The details can be easily found in media reporting, but this secretive Frankenstein of a bill slashes corporate and top individual marginal rates, eliminates the corporate alternative minimum tax (potentially allowing savvy businesses to avoid paying taxes altogether), increases exemptions for the individual AMT (potentially allowing savvy high-income earners to avoid paying taxes altogether), increases the threshold for the estate tax, allows certain industries (most conspicuously real estate) to benefit from pass-through income deductions, guts the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act which will increase insurance premiums, penalizes people who pay state and local taxes with a cap on deductions (affecting our California neighbors), decreases the mortgage interest deduction and opens the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling.

More: Senate bill delivers tax relief for Nevadans: Heller

The cost of all these provisions is expected to be nearly $1.5 trillion. Republicans claim that the cuts will be paid for by increased growth, but mainstream economists and nonpartisan policy groups overwhelmingly agree that this assertion is implausible. What's more, the individual tax cuts that benefit most Americans are set to expire in 2025 while the corporate tax cut is made permanent. If growth does not keep up, we will again see Republicans try to raid Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security; continue to neglect our outdated infrastructure; and defund crucial programs in scientific research and the arts. Cuts to crucial programs such as Meals on Wheels; the Women, Infants, and Children Program; and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families among others are set to automatically take effect if revenues are inadequate. Coming from a party that has previously shouted so vociferously about the federal deficit and criticized Democrats for spending on new programs, this strategy demeans our political discourse and mocks the American public. If we allow Republicans to emerge unscathed from this travesty, not only will we be paying for this dearly in the future, but we will also be rewarding the continued dismantling of the American middle class.

In the face of all of this, Senator Heller touts his amendment to double the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000. This pales in comparison to the giveaways to corporations and billionaires that exist in the rest of the bill, and it is particularly absurd when one considers that Congress allowed the popular Children's Health Insurance Program to expire at the end of September and won't be addressing its future until after the new year. In addition, Congressman Amodei's website references Clinton-era GDP growth of 3.9 percent as justification that the tax plan will more than pay for itself. However, he fails to also acknowledge that President Clinton raised the top income and corporate tax rates in 1993. His entire premise is based on the robust GDP growth and federal surplus of the 1990s, but there was no tax giveaway in that scenario. He wants us to suspend logic, history and reality to accept disproven Republican rhetoric about trickle-down economics. This is deceptive accounting in the hopes of attracting more support for a bill that most Americans know to be a scam.

This bill throws us scraps from the extravagant banquet thrown for the upper class, and Amodei and Heller are mistaken if they think we will sit idly by, complacent with this unprecedented robbery. One of the most unpopular pieces of legislation introduced in Congress over the last 30 years, this bill was passed over the objection of the vast majority of ordinary Americans with none of the debate and public discourse given to the Affordable Care Act. Don't be fooled if an individual tax bill falls by a couple thousand dollars a year: there are more widespread implications that will make life more expensive for Americans in the long run, including increased insurance premiums, wages that lag behind inflation, and entitlement program cuts. Sadly, long-term complications are not our politicians' concern given our short election cycles and moneyed influence in politics.

If our elected officials do not vote with us and our interests, they do not deserve our votes in return. This next election cycle will see extraordinary spending by outside groups and special interests to try to spin the Republican policy as good for the country. We will be bombarded by ads and messages paid for by corporations and billionaires who benefited handsomely at our expense. We must engage with family, friends, neighbors and colleagues to make sure we all recognize what congressional Republicans have done to us. When the fall comes, we must phone-bank for candidates who will actually support us over special interests in Washington, D.C. We must canvass for candidates who will actually be accountable to us, not whomever writes the biggest checks. And on Nov. 6, 2018, we must show Congressman Amodei and Senator Heller how a responsible representative democracy functions and vote them out of office.

Christopher Lin-Brande is a physician and 2006 graduate of Reno High School.

Read or Share this story: