White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney appeared on CNN yesterday morning where he was asked why the corporate tax cuts included in the congressional Republican tax cut bill(s) are permanent while the meager middle class benefits are temporary.
Like many other Republicans in Washington, Mulvaney elected to say the quiet parts out loud and admit that the middle class benefits are a gimmick.
Asked why the corporate tax cuts in the bill are permanent, while ones for individual Americans will sunset by 2025, Mulvaney said that “ this is where Washington really does speak a different language” and that the sunsetting provisions were necessary to work within the rules of the Senate and “simply trying to essentially manipulate the numbers and game the system so that you can fall into this square peg”.
The small benefits for working class people included in the GOP bills are temporary because that's who's going to pay for permanent tax cuts for the rich. A few years of higher standard deductions and laughably-small child tax credits are a smoke screen. The bill for their tax cuts is going to come due and average people are going to pay for it.
The ultimate irony here is that Republicans (including Mulvaney himself) demanded the fiscal constraints or "square peg" they're maneuvering under while President Obama was in office.
The only fiscally conservative politicians that remain in Washington today are Democrats.