Free Republic

Ask Matt Labash, who says the GOP should have called its tax reform measure the "Robbing Peter to Pay Apple Act." Dear Matt, Republicans have called their tax bill “The Tax Cut and Jobs Act.” President Trump wanted to call it “The Cut, Cut, Cut Act” (And here we thought his specialty was branding.) What would you have named it? H.R. Block I’d be fine with calling it “The Republicans Pissing Down Your Leg While Telling You That You’re Bathing In A Warm Mineral Spring Act.” Or maybe “The Robbing Peter to Pay Apple Act.” (In this scenario, you,...

House Republicans on Thursday narrowly adopted the Senate’s version of the 2018 budget resolution, overcoming a key hurdle for the party’s tax-reform plan. The budget will allow Republicans to pass a tax overhaul that adds up to $1.5 trillion to the deficit through a process known as reconciliation, which only requires 51 votes to pass in the Senate. Twenty Republicans voted against the budget in the 216-212 vote, more than the 18 who voted against the original House version earlier this month. Most of the 20 defectors were centrists hailing from populous states that could stand to lose from eliminating...

Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has told the country that taxes must rise, the welfare state be cut back and the labour market be liberalised. The dire warnings came in the Chancellor's first policy speech since the re-election of his governing coalition of Social Democrats and Greens a month ago. His speech was dominated by economic issues, and the threat of war with Iraq. Once again Mr Schroeder pledged to cut unemployment - standing at 10% of the workforce or just over four million people - echoing his broken promise of four years ago, when he said he would push the...