Armaggedon did not come with the passing of GOP tax reform, as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi predicted. In fact, some of her colleagues are acknowledging that the employee bonuses to come out of the deal are indeed a good thing for the American worker.
That, however, is where the praise stopped.
“Listen, I think it’s great when companies want to give workers bonuses,” Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said Tuesday. “That doesn’t change the reality of the numbers. It’s a debt-inducing, make-rich-people-richer tax bill that in the long run is not going to be helpful to the vast majority of people in my state that are sitting around the kitchen table trying to figure out how [to] come out even at the end of the month.”
Just as soon as tax reform passed Congress, company after company shared some good news with their employees. Some of the tax catastrophes included: AT&T is giving bonuses to hundreds of thousands employees, the Darden restaurant group, which owns national chains like Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, is investing $20 million in its workforce, and Visa is hiking its 401k match program.
Democrats can't ignore the good news, according to Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Ahrens.
“As more workers see their paychecks rise, Democrats are going to have a tougher time explaining how their nonstop obstruction is helping the middle class,” he said.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) didn't ignore all the boosts to employees, calling the bonuses a “good thing.” But those good news items are “greatly outweighed by the bad things” in it, he added, presumably alluding to the same concerns McCaskill had.
Eighty percent of Americans are expected to get tax cuts under the GOP plan. Democrats acknowledge that statistic too, but not without a reminder that those benefits eventually expire.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) heard those complaints and has extended his hand to liberal lawmakers to support his new legislation to make the cuts permanent.