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Friday, December 1, 2017

Ignorance In the Senate

I just flipped on C-Span to see if the Senate had yet started voting on the tax plan.  It has not.  What I did see, however, was just moment that illustrates the sorry level of ignorance in that body.  Senator Stabenow of Michigan was speaking about the tax bill and her objections to it.  In the space of three minutes she said the following:

1.  The Bush tax cuts of 2001 led to the financial collapse of 2008-9.  This isn't just a lie; it's a whopper.  There are a lot of reasons that have been given for the financial collapse; no one, however, blames the 2001 tax cuts.  Stabenow might have blamed the Allied victory in World War I for the financial crisis in 2008.  It had about as much impact as the 2001 tax cuts. 

2.  Stabenow also started talking about how in 2001, when Obama became president, he had to try to put things back together.  Obama became president in 2009, so she was just off by 8 years.  It may just be a slip of the lip, but you would think that a senator would at least know who was president when.

3.  Stabenow then went off on a big tear about a minor amendment regarding using gift cards as awards to employees for good work.  She opined that it was wrong to take gift cards away from middle class employees.  That remark revealed that she had no idea what she was talking about.  let me explain.  Right now, employers cannot deduct the cost of gifts to employees of more than $25 per year under the tax law.  That does not bar a gift being made, it just affects the tax treatment.  If an employer gives a gift of $1000, it is treated as a bonus rather than a gift and is included in taxable income.  The amendment in the current tax bill makes clear that gift cards will be treated the same way.  In other words, companies cannot get around the tax law by awarding gift cards rather than cash.  It's a minor clarification of the tax law.  It doesn't take gift cards from middle class employees.  If Stabenow had even read the provision, she would know that.  Instead, she spent two minutes objecting to a provision about which she had no knowledge.

I realize that senators can't know everything.  I just think that occasionally, senators ought to know something.  Stabenow fails that test.

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