Instead of passing an unpopular tax cut, imagine what the midterm election results might have looked like if President Trump and Republicans instead made even an inch of progress on the proposed border “wall” or in bringing order to our free-for-all immigration system.
In Trump’s nearly two years in office, there has been movement on neither. But we did get a tax cut that no one outside of Paul Ryan asked for.
Charles Lane at the Washington Post laid out an excellent case Monday night on just how big of a flop Trump’s only major legislative accomplishment is.
Former President George H.W. Bush “may have lived just long enough to witness the moment at which tax cuts have finally reached the point of diminishing political returns for Republicans,” Lane wrote.
Just ahead of the elections, Trump promised yet another tax cut that would target middle income earners, though once again, almost nobody was clamoring for one. A Gallup poll in April showed that just 45 percent of Americans said their federal taxes were too high. More Americans, 48 percent, said their taxes were fair enough.
A CBS poll from the summer showed roughly the same measure of support for some kind of barrier construction on the border, but that was before the “caravan” of some 8,000 Central Americans showed up at the gates and threatened to bum-rush U.S. border patrol agents. That was before an Associated Press report on Tuesday said that a detention camp for illegal immigrant children in Texas, which was intended to be temporary, had swelled into a “tent city” and is on track to cost taxpayers $430 million.
Perhaps more importantly, a Harvard-Harris poll released at the start of this year showed an stunning support for the Trump administration’s proposals that would limit the number of immigrants into the country.
The poll showed that 81 percent of registered voters wanted the annual immigration rate reduced by nearly a third; nearly 80 percent said they favored an immigration system that prioritized education and skill level over the current chain-migration mess we currently have; and almost 70 percent said the lottery, which doles out visas to immigrants at random, should end.
But instead of new laws that would reorder the chaotic immigration system, Americans got the one trick Republicans know: A tax cut that even Republicans know probably did them more harm than good.
Bloomberg in September reported on a poll conducted for the Republican National Committee that showed more than 60 percent of voters believed the new tax law benefited “large corporations and rich Americans” over “middle class families.” Upon hearing that poll, Trump knew just what was needed: another tax cut!
Then Republicans lost 40 seats in the House, returning power to the Democrats and further eroding any chance he has at blowing up a balloon castle, let alone constructing a wall.
If only there had been some sign — polls, feverish “BUILD THE WALL” chants, anything — that could have let the GOP know that Americans care about immigration.
Oh well.
