The reaction to the GOP tax cuts has been revealing. The reveal is the utter disingenuousness of the average political commentator.
We have seen over the past week a splendid example of political commentary that would be put to better use as fertilizer.
Republicans are claiming that they’re doubling the standard deduction. Democrats are claiming that the GOP is repealing the personal exemption. This level of selective data is outright dishonesty.
The tax bill repeals the personal exemption and doubles the standard deduction. The actual impact on American taxpayers is extremely minimal.
The child tax credit is another area in which both sides are overstating their case to the point of deception. A credit increase of $600 compared to a deduction cancellation of $4000 isn’t a major shift. This doesn’t stop Republicans from isolating the credit increase in their rhetoric or Democrats from isolating the deduction cancellation in their criticism.
 Student loan interest is canceled as a deduction. That being said, a 2% reduction in income tax rates, compared to a cancellation of a deduction of interest on a student loan have similar impacts, one positive, the other negative, depending on the income, and student loan amounts. However, eliminating the deduction of a student loan amount equaling one year’s annual salary at 5% interest will have almost no impact on the bottom line of a tax return under the new tax bracket scheme.
 Republicans are overstating their cuts, Democrats are overstating the increases. The false commentary amounts to zero truth being conveyed. As a consequent from the echo-chamber effect, Democrats are feeding into a false narrative, and Republicans are feeding into a contrary false narrative. There is no truth, only opinion.
 A “contradiction” is a set of two propositions, where one is false and the other is true.
“Contrary” is where both statements cannot be true, but they may both be false.
 If I’m wearing a mono-colored shirt, and I claim my shirt is green, and another claims my shirt is red, we both cannot be correct, but I might be wearing a grey shirt in which case we are both wrong.
Republicans and Democrats, emptying themselves of truth in their commentary, are contrary political parties – they are both incorrect. Implying some other way is the truth.
 As contrary commentary it conveys no positive content, there is no bearing on reality, as such, it fills the minds of the undiscerning with vacuous nonsense. With zero positive content, the echo-chambers are filling people’s minds with little more than distractions, which are, themselves, nothing.
 Moreover, for the first time in nine years, Democrats finally care about a deficit. For the first time in nine years, Republicans are overlooking it.
It’s as if their complaints have absolutely nothing to do with substance and everything to do with politics. Given that they are politicians, this is politics for politics’ sake; this tautological scheming is tantamount to nothing at all – they are pursuing a goal for the sake of pursuing a goal.
I’ve written on multiple occasions about the societal drift toward nothingness. I began with corporate tax – as corporations don’t actually exist. They are an abstraction from things that actually exist. They are a composite of consumers, employees, and shareholders (owners).
A government could tax shareholders directly through capital gains and dividend tax increases, or employees through income tax, or consumers through sales tax, but instead they choose to tax the nothing that is corporations and give the power of taxation to business managers, who decide between decreased opportunities for employees, higher prices for the product, or decreased profits for shareholders.
Corporate tax reduction is a blessing to anyone with a pension or a 401K. It’s damaging to us all.
A 2008 OECD study by Jens Arnold confirmed that corporate tax is the most damaging in terms of personal income growth. Another 2008 study done by the former World Bank chief economist, Simeon Djankov, had examined 85 countries and determined that every 10% increase in corporate tax averages to a 2% decline in GDP.
I shall end on a positive note (one thing I will rarely do with Mr. Trump). The one good thing to come from this bill is the reduction of the corporate tax. It will boost the economy, improve opportunities, assist those with a pension, and decrease the impetus for raising prices.
All of this is to say that amidst real change, we have the valueless commentators that do nothing but put forward a party. Ideology is absent, principles are absent, but party loyalty is present.
The one good thing is the thing Republicans seldom discuss, corporate tax reductions isn’t a talking point, it is, itself, a reflection of societal decay.
In this ever-present drift toward nothingness Being Libertarian serves to assert glimmers of hope – perhaps America is a place to do business after all.
Brandon Kirby
Latest posts by Brandon Kirby (see all)
- Bad Guy Pro Wrestle Psychology: Why Do You Hate Justin Trudeau? - March 7, 2022
- Donate to the Freedom Convoy - February 7, 2022
- The Dunning-Kruger Effect in Politics - January 22, 2022
