Anyway, I have argued that the GOP has a much better chance of passing a tax bill than they had of passing a healthcare bill, but let's be blunt here. These people aren't very good at much of anything. Mitch McConnell is a very smart legislative tactician, but he is surrounded by creatures who challenge our basic notions of sentience. Years ago, Bobby Jindal said that the GOP needed to "stop being the stupid party." Instead, they quadrupled down on "stupid," and have squandered the first year of their unified government.
They really could screw this up. And that leads to a statement that has been circulating around from Rep. Chris Collins saying that his "donors" have insisted that the GOP pass a tax bill, or he can't ever call them again for money.
Did this conversation happen? Quite possibly. Don't misinterpret it, though. To knee-jerk lefties, this means that the GOP doesn't really believe in its tax plan, or that they are just bought off by monied interests, or something like that. Plutocracy! Bull-fucking-shit.
One of the long-running findings in studies of campaign finance is that donations are made from interest groups to like-minded legislators. However, there is a great paper by Janet Box-Steffensmeier and Tobin Grant called "All In A Day's Work: The Financial Rewards of Legislative Effectiveness," Legislative Studies Quarterly (Volume 24, No. 4, pages 511-523). If you get shit done, you get money. Why? Donors want like-minded people in office, but useless people are, by definition, useless. If you fuck up, then fuck you. Get out. You're done. Donors want people in office who can actually accomplish something. Now, Box-Steffensmeier and Grant didn't put it in those terms, because they were writing for a proper journal, but I can say whatever shit I want over my morning coffee.
So, what happens if the GOP fails? Again? It may really be that the money dries up because... what the fuck good are these fucking nitwits?
And... um... yeah. They pretty much suck, don't they? They can't do shit. They can stop the Democrats from doing anything, but accomplishing anything for conservatives? Nope. They fucking suck at that because they suck at everything.
Of course, they might actually pass something despite themselves. I still think the odds favor them on a tax bill. At the end of the day, they are Republicans. Mitch McConnell will stick a bill in front of their faces that cuts corporate taxes. Whatever else it does will be irrelevant to the GOP because... did I mention tax cuts?
But if the GOP can't pass a fucking tax cut during unified government, then I can't think of a better demonstration of the uselessness of the party. Chris Collins's donors may have said what he claims. Box-Steffensmeier and Grant's research is what matters here.