The consensus bill does not force grad students to pay taxes on tuition waivers as did the house bill (per the NYTs article linked to). So despite being an irresponsible callous dumpster fire of a bill, it does not screw over grad students. At least not directly.

I watched the Malik McDowell video. I wouldn't call the new Seahawk a "rich braggart." He looks more like some dude who was arrested for simply calling a cop a "bitch." Disorderly conduct, my ass.

The cops appear to be in the wrong here. McDowell seems very reasonable to me, and I don't think he has anything to apologize for or be ashamed of.

@3,
oh you're serious?

You were wondering who the smokin' hottie was standing behind Doug Jones during his victory speech (don't even bother denying it).

Once again, the internet does not disappoint and totally has our priorities in order. His name is Carson Jones, the senator-elect's dashing gay son! He's also apparently a zookeeper (???), so break out those lion tamer fantasies.

@3 you've been brainwashed, seek help

Politicians who voted to repeal Net Neutrality and how much they were paid by the telecom industry [link]. Here's our state's digraceful agent: Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, Washington, $673,530 ... she sold our freedoms for half-a-million.

@3: But this isn't the tax bill that would achieve even a small subset of those wishes. This bill doesn't elevate the purchasing power of lower and middle incomes, and only starts helping citizens who have stocks and richer investments.

But even worse, is signed into law, the GOP will be revisited by their guilty consciousness for a skyrocketing deficit and they'll pleasure themselves by cutting medicare and social security.

I find it odd that people are baffled that a political party goes farther out of their way for a voting bloc that votes for them 50% of the time, rather than a voting bloc that reliably votes for them 95% of the time.

It is like being confused about why a store is more focused on running advertisements for people outside of the store, rather that for people waiting in their check out line.

@2: He was not arrested for swearing at cops, he was arrested because he took drinks he did not pay for, was kicked out, and then when he was allowed to reenter the club, he started dumping out liquor bottles. Then he was kicked out of the club again, he threw a screaming baby-tantrum in the street. What a stand up guy.

Anyway, my favorite part is when he yells out to bystanders that the police are "planting shit" on him, and the cops just start audibly laughing at him.

Ahhh, I see the economy understander has logged on. He knows that the rich, much like trump are so rich because of their hard work and intelligence. Wait, I'm being told how America works...crap.

"There’s always been something problematic about the Democratic Party’s fixation on white working-class voters," Sally Kohn writes at The Daily Beast.

Sally, thanks for the free political advice. But at the federal level, how are the core interests of black voters really that divergent from those of white working-class voters?

Let me answer my own rhetorical question. There's a reason folks like Ms. Kohn wants us to forget about white working-class voters and make the distinction between white working-class voters and (working-class) voters of color.

Because they don't want the Democrats to offer a real economic message to working-class voters. The GOP has become a party that caters to its donor elites while offering scraps of identity politics to its white, more-male base. And the likes of Sally Kohn here and Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Kirsten Gillibrand inevitably in 2020 want the Dems to be a party that caters to its own donor elites while offering scraps of identity politics to its "people of color," more-female base.

Full disclosure. I voted for Hillary in 2016.

@3 Corporations are people, too, right? "When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: 'Whose?'" Don Marquis

@3: I want some of what you're smoking! Unless it will diabilitate my craddle.

Will it, Ted? I'm so scared our youth will start smoking GOP Bullshit.

Good article:

https://www.salon.com/2017/12/11/the-rep…

Republicans who controlled the government in the 1920s insisted that national prosperity depended on government protection of the rich, who they believed would plow their capital back into the economy to provide jobs and higher wages for workers. When they took control of all branches of the federal government in 1921, they used their unchecked power to remake the government along the lines of their ideology. They slashed taxes and regulations and turned government over to businessmen, arguing that their policies would speed up the economy and bring the nation untold wealth.

In fact, the Republican policies did increase worker productivity by about 43 percent, but the profits went to business owners. So did the benefits of the tax cuts. By 1929, 5 percent of the population received one-third of the nation’s income. The structural weaknesses of this economy plunged the nation into the Great Depression. By the time FDR took office, 13 million people — 25 percent of the population — were out of work, the price of wheat had dropped from $1.05 to 39 cents a bushel, mothers went hungry so their children could eat, and people who had lost their homes lived in packing boxes in “Hoovervilles,” named after Herbert Hoover, the Republican president who oversaw the crash.

More succinct @12. There's a reason Sally Kohn wants the Democratic Party to forget about white working-class voters. Because Sally Kohn wants the Democratic Party to forget about working-class voters.

@3 so you didn’t do well in math class I take it.

@18

While in Seattle this concept may be contrary to the popular opinion, clearly the rest of the country seems to embrace this idea. This is why the Democratic party is out and the Republicans are in.

No.

2016 election results:

Donald J. Trump (Republican)
Popular vote: 62,985,134 (45.93%)
Electoral vote: 304 (56.5%)

Hillary Clinton (Democratic)
Popular vote: 65,853,652 (48.02%)
Electoral vote: 227 (42.2%)

The democratic party is not out because of popular opinion, it is out because of electoral opinion. Electoral opinion weights underpopulated rural votes heavier than populated urban votes.

Thus, your opinion on the tax plan is NOT the popular opinion.

OMG! You give true meaning to the phrase "Dumb as a sack of hair!!"

Noted economist mistral has owned all you libs yet again. Lets all put our faith in the trust-fund kid that sells meat on late night deep cable, what could go wrong?

"who even if we assume he is right that ALL THE TAX SAVINGS GO TO THE WEALTHY, seems to think they just put it in a mattress and sleep on it."

No, they put it into an off-shore sheltered account in Panama or the Cayman Islands or Singapore or Dubai and let it sit there where it does absolutely no one but themselves any good...

@3
the money will be spent more efficiently/effectively in the hands of individuals/businesses than by the government
[citation needed]

"That which is asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence."

Counter-case: American healthcare, run by multiple independent for-profit healthcare businesses & multiple for-profit insurance companies = the most inefficient, expensive, and ineffective healthcare system in the developed world. Neo-natal and maternal mortality are on the rise here. The "Free Market" system is failing us with deadly results.

The French single-payer system (where any one can get care anywhere, and where the doctors do almost no paperwork) is much more efficient and comprehensive than ours.

But hey, don't let that stop you breathing the Free Market Spice.
--
It is high time we got back to country of where hard work, self sufficiency and individual initiative and responsibility are valued.
All this 'getting back' to some imaginary time when someone's pet ideological ideas were in full effect and everything was better. Sounds like an economic fantasy-land.

Why not work from where we are and improve things? I see entrepreneurs & self-employed people working their asses off. We don't need to "get back" to a time when that may have also been true, it's true right now.

Also, have you read anything about the ongoing automation of work? Are you factoring that in to your Glorious Future of Hard Work and Self-Sufficiency (which itself is a myth, since we're all in this together & rely on economic interdependence to survive.)

What happens when even the shitty Amazon jobs at the euphemistically-named "fulfillment centers" are finally given over to robots? Where are the displaced people supposed to work, now that the corporations have extra bank-account padding (tax cuts!), and large swaths of low-wage workers are now receiving no wage?

Bullshit mistral. A few individuals with lots and lots of money shifting it around is helping only themselves and the bankers, a business or two as well where staff are paid minimum wage which they can't live in. American capitalism is not about getting there with hard work. Lots and lots of people work hard. And the rich, how hard do many of them work. Money makes money, so they sit on their arses and fly around having lots of non work related adventures.

Fuck you mccain, on your hospital bed. No last minute act of decency then.

@28 Keep fucking that horse and I'm sure you'll make a centaur sooner or later buddy.

Moron mistral, the govt is responsible for roads and infrastructure. Individuals pay for that will they? And the sick and old, indivuduals pay for their survival. Or best we just let them die off, eh?
There's Paul Ryan telling the nation to have more babies. Does he even know what it costs to deliver a child in an American hospital.
Democratic socialism is the way forward, so just fuck off with your ignorant views.

@mistral all the money is going to the super-rich and corporations. It's not going to you. You're a flunky, a fool, or a Russian Bot. This is a sex advice column, mostly. So please...

Best fucking Morning News from Savage, ever! Huzzah, Dan. And while I might not vote for you, I would DEFINITELY cheer your swearing-in on that good book! Blessings be, brother.

May the RepubliKKKan Evil Empire go down in flames in 2018, and the pig blood get washed entirely away by the blue wave.
@3, @18, @23, @28 misinformed, and @34 Dumbass in Shoreline: STFU already.
@33 LavaGirl: Bless you.

So the RepubliKKKans won't be satisfied until the U.S. dollar gets replaced by the Chinese yuan and the Earth is nothing but a desolate, burned out lifeless shell.
Jesus CHRIST I DIDN"T VOTE FOR THIS SHIT!!!!

@28 - Uhm, no. ["World's richest 0.1% have boosted their wealth by as much as poorest half" - Guardian on the World Inequality Report 2018]

@32 - You don't see people flocking to France for medical treatment in their creaking, socialist medical system. Nor do you seem them running to England or Canada.

Actually, you do. Take it away, Wikipedia!:

France

British NHS patients have been offered treatment in France to reduce waiting lists for hip, knee and cataract surgery since 2002.[87] France is a popular tourist destination but also ranked the world's leading health care system by the World Health Organization.[88] The European Court of Justice said that National Health Service (England) has to pay back British patients.[89]

At this moment, the number of patients is growing, and in 2016, France has scored # 7 in the Medical Tourism Index.[90]

Canada

In comparison to US health costs, patients can save 30 to 60 percent on health costs in Canada.[65]

Again, provide some evidence for your assertions mistral, or we'll just ignore you.

United States

A report of McKinsey and Co. from 2008 found that between 60,000 and 85,000 medical tourists were traveling to the United States for the purpose of receiving in-patient medical care.[69] The same McKinsey study estimated that 750,000 American medical tourists traveled FROM the United States to other countries in 2007 (up from 500,000 in 2006)