Statement of the Day: YOU ALL JUST GOT A LOT RICHER

This is Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in West Palm Beach, Florida.

It is a resort strictly for the wealthy.  It costs $200,000 to join (doubled after Trump took office) and $14,000 for annual membership dues plus $2,000 for annual food and beverage costs.  (None of those amounts, you may want to know, includes taxes.) 

Trump is there currently, as he has been numerous times already in his first year in office, and enjoying the Christmas / New Year's holiday period.  His time has included tweets, of course, including taking credit for returning the U.S. to saying "Merry Christmas" again, and lots of golf.  

His time has also included basking in the glow of his victory for the rich in the form of the tax bill he signed into law before leaving for Mar-a-Lago.

That basking in the glow has included a statement made by Trump that confirms the suspicions -- not that facts that support this, but merely the suspicions -- that the "tax bill" was a nothing more than a huge wealth grab right in front of the American people.  Trump once claimed that, "The rich will not be gaining at all with this plan."  Permanent corporate tax cuts and temporary personal tax cuts, except for the wealthy, does that?

Let's look at how the whole series of disgraceful events leading to this wealth grab unfolded:

On Tuesday, December 19, at just before 2:30 p.m. EST, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of the bill by a vote of 227-203.  (All Democrats and twelve Republicans voted "no".)  That same day, the Senate took up the bill and the Senate parliamentarian noted that there were some things included in the bill the House passed that should not be in the bill.  Therefore, the House would have to vote again.  Nonetheless, the Senate also voted in favor of the bill by a vote of 51-48.  (The vote in the Senate was around 1:00 a.m. EST on December 20, again, in the middle of the night.)  Twelve hours later, at just before 1:00 p.m. EST, the House, not surprisingly, voted again in favor of the changed bill by a vote of 224-201.

Then, in the late morning of December 22, Trump signs the bill into law, citing the "rush job" on getting the printed bill -- I guess without scribbled notes in the margins -- and the signing of it put together was because of the media asking if he would keep his promise of signing the bill or not.  Later that that same day, Trump, at his Mar-a-Lago resort, says, "You all just got a a lot richer."  The White House tried to suggest that the "all" meant the middle class in general.  Trump said, "You all just got a lot richer," to his fellow wealthy elite at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Yes, they did ... and the middle class just got screwed.

Terry