Tax Bill: Senators’ Special Tax Breaks, Duping Public

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DAVID SIROTA, d.sirota at newsweekgroup.com, @davidsirota
Along with other journalists at International Business Times, Sirota has broken a series of stories about the tax package that have gotten picked up by major media.

In the latest piece — “Republican Senators Will Save Millions With Special Real-Estate Tax Break” they report: “More than a quarter of all GOP senators will be voting on a bill that includes a special provision that could give them a new tax cut through their real estate shell companies, according to federal records reviewed by International Business Times.

“The provision was not in the original bill passed by the Senate on Dec. 1. It was embedded in the final bill by Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, who is among the lawmakers that stand to personally benefit from the provision.

“In response to Democratic lawmakers who have slammed the provision as a lobbyist-sculpted giveaway to the rich, Republican Majority Whip John Cornyn promoted on Twitter a column by Ryan Ellis, a registered bank lobbyist who has been working to influence the tax legislation and who has defended the provision.”

ERICA PAYNE, MARY ALLEN LINDEMANN, epayne at patrioticmillionaires.org, @PatrioticMills
Payne is founder of Patriotic Millionaires. Mary Allen Lindemann is the owner of Coffee By Design which operates four coffeehouses in Portland, Maine and recently wrote the piece “Senator Collins, which one of us is being duped?” which states: “Senator Collins, in all of your years in politics, all your years of being an educated, intelligent woman, have you honestly still not figured out how to tell when you are being lied to?

“The idea that Mitch McConnell and your colleagues in the Senate are going to address your concerns with the tax bill in future health care legislation is absurd. GOP leaders started reneging on their so-called promises to you almost as soon as they were made. Even if your “fixes” make it through the Senate — which would be a miracle in and of itself – they would still have to make it through the House, and Speaker Paul Ryan has already stated publicly that he won’t stand by your deal.

“So have you been duped? Or have we?

“All these years, we have watched you thread the political needle. You’re a moderate and a conservative! A Washington insider who is true to her Maine roots! Reasonable and principled and sensible. That image got you re-elected in 2014 with 40 percent of the vote. It earned you a national platform. But Senator, hear me when I say, the smoke and mirrors are long gone. Now it’s just you, your values and your vote.”