How out of touch is the Democratic Party? This out of touch: The Washington Post reports that Democrats expected the Trump tax cut to be unpopular and are surprised to find that voters like seeing more money in their pay checks.
Post reporter Erica Warner writes:
Democrats predicted a political backlash for Republicans in December when the GOP pushed through a deeply unpopular tax cut that added more than $1 trillion to the federal deficit and disproportionately helped the wealthy.
But at the outset of the 2018 campaign season, Democrats’ early optimism appears less well founded here [in Indiana], where Democrat Joe Donnelly is facing a tough Senate reelection fight.
The new law is rising in popularity as businesses in Indiana and elsewhere trumpet bonuses and bigger paychecks. And while Donnelly and fellow Democrats struggle to craft a consistent attack on the law, Republicans — boosted by outside spending from groups backed by the billionaire Koch brothers and others — are united in touting the tax cuts and slamming moderate Democrats who voted against them.
You know the Dems are hurting when their organ, the Washington Post, concedes there’s a problem and feels compelled to invoke “the billionaire Koch brothers” to help account for it.
According to the Post, Democrats like Sen. Donnelly intend to argue that the tax cut, though it is increasing people’s paychecks now, will be bad for the country later on. Donnelly is referring, of course, to the debt. Yet, Donnelly just voted for a budget deal that will add hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending.
Donnelly makes an unconvincing deficit hawk. He’s far more convincing as a hack who votes the way his party demands.
At least Donnelly isn’t using the word “crumbs” to describe the extra money taxpayers are seeing in their paychecks due to the tax cut. However, that’s still how party leaders view the windfall.
Steny Hoyer, the number two House Democrat, toured the “Rust Belt” last week to pitch the Democrats’ economic message. The Post reports:
As for Pelosi’s comment criticizing the tax law’s benefit for the middle class as “crumbs,” Hoyer contended that Pelosi’s point was accurate even though it has become central to GOP attacks against Democrats. Still, “I don’t say it,” Hoyer said.
Not to voters, only to reporters. But just the fact that he thinks it shows how out of touch the Democrats are with ordinary Americans.
So does this, also from the Post’s report:
Since the [tax cut] passed, congressional Democrats have been largely focused on the issue of immigration, forcing the government into a three-day partial shutdown last month in an unsuccessful attempt to gain protections for the young undocumented immigrants known as “dreamers,” who were brought to the country as children.
Meanwhile, Republicans have relentlessly promoted the benefits of the tax law.
In short, one party is working to allow American citizens to keep more of the money they earn. The other is ridiculing this effort, while forcing a government showdown to help illegal immigrants. And it’s surprised to learn that this approach isn’t going over well in the heartland.
That’s how out of touch the Democratic Party is.
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