While the the events of the last 48 hours have been very good for corporate America, the upper echelons of the ultra rich, and, despite his pouting, Donald Trump, perhaps no one is happier about the passage of the bill formally known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act than Paul Ryan. The House Speaker, who has obsessed over the idea of cutting taxes for basically his entire life, is in the midst of a cable TV victory lap, taking his perma-grin from the Today show, where he told host Savannah Guthrie that he is not, in fact, “living in a fantasy world,” to CNBC, where he claimed that “nobody knows” whether tax cuts will pay for themselves because “that’s in the future,” so don’t listen to any economists who tell you otherwise.
High on his own success, Wisconsin’s prodigal son has decided to follow up on a bill experts say will do little for, and in some cases hurt, the lower and middle classes, by telling poor people that their days of receiving “entitlements” such as food and medical care are numbered. While denying previous reports that the House will now turn its attention to Medicare, on Wednesday Ryan told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, “The kinds of entitlement reform that we are going to be pursuing are the kinds to get people on welfare to work.” Later, during an interview with Fox News, Ryan said, “People want able-bodied people who are on welfare to go to work, they want us to get people out of poverty, into the workforce. That’s good for them, that’s good for the economy, that’s good for the federal budget.”
Though Ryan is practically salivating at the thought of taking an ax to things like Medicaid and food stamps, his counterpart in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, is less enthused. During an interview Thursday with Axios’s Mike Allen, the Senate majority leader said he “would not expect“ to see welfare reform on the table in 2018. “We have to have Democratic involvement,” McConnell noted, saying that “things like like infrastructure,” where Republicans would be more likely to have “Democratic participation,” would be more likely.
According to the White House, Trump will unveil a “detailed document of principles . . . for upgrading roads, bridges, airports, and other public works” before January’s State of the Union. Given that last week, the ex-real-estate developer used a fatal train crash to drum up support for his T.B.D. infrastructure plan on Twitter, he seems hopeful that he seems inclined to tackle that project next. On the other hand, Team Trump has also reportedly begun laying the groundwork to put lazy takers on notice, including preparing “a sweeping executive order that would mandate a top-to-bottom review of the federal programs on which millions of poor Americans rely.” According to Bloomberg, “the administration has yet to reach a decision on which objective to put first.” If it’s up to Ryan, for whom the notion of kicking the poor while they’re down is an aphrodisiac, roads and bridges can wait.
Has Ivanka Trump been getting economics lessons from her father?
When Donald Trump was running for president, he made a lot of patently absurd statements. One of them was that if he were to serve two terms, he would eliminate the national debt “over a period of eight years”: a bold claim considering that the U.S. hasn’t been debt-free since, oh, 1835, and that when Trump made his pledge it clocked in at more than $19 trillion—so bold that perhaps even he realized it was outside the realm of possibility, and ceased to mention it. Luckily, on Thursday First Daughter and White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump took up the cause, stating in an interview with Fox & Friends that tax cuts and deregulation will “ultimately eliminate” the U.S.’s debt, which is currently hovering at around $20.6 trillion.
To be clear, this is never going to happen. In fact, it’s unclear whether the economic growth the legislation will supposedly unleash will even be enough to pay for the cuts. (Virtually all economists say it won’t come close.) But if Papa Trump was watching today’s interview—and considering it occurred on his favorite show, there’s a good chance he was—we can probably expect to hear Ivanka’s name floated for Fed chair in short order.
The Koch Brothers have a plan
You may not like the tax bill now, but that’s all going to change:
Could your stock price use a boost?
Slap the word “blockchain” on your company’s name—it doesn’t matter if you’re an underwear manufacturer, a used-car dealership, or a Bloody Mary-mix maker—and you’re good to go.
The Levin Report will be off until January 2. Happy holidays and see you in 2018!
Elsewhere!
Goldman Sachs Is Setting Up a Cryptocurrency Trading Desk (Bloomberg)
Ransom Demands Skyrocket Along with Bitcoin’s Price Surge (Bloomberg)
A Million-Dollar Bet That Bitcoin Will Hit $50,000 (W.S.J.)
Swiss find serious shortcomings at JPMorgan in 1MDB case (Reuters)
In Tax Overhaul, Trump Tries to Defy the Economic Odds (N.Y.T.)
Puerto Rico Governor: G.O.P. tax bill is ‘serious setback’ for the island (CNN Money)
Hundreds of People—like Michael Milken— Made Gifts of Stock with Great Timing (W.S.J)
The Internal Divide Behind Trump’s Takeover of Consumer Watchdog (W.S.J)
New Uber C.O.O. wants more strategy and less controversy (Financial Times)
Brooklyn bar opens with axe-throwing (Eater)
