Opinion: Senate tax madness

Major tax legislation should not be passed with extreme haste. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Friday, December 1, 2017 [NYTimes.com/Opinion »]( [David Leonhardt] David Leonhardt Op-Ed Columnist This is madness. Senate leaders are now hastily trying to rewrite a sprawling tax bill — one that touches almost every part of the economy — and then pass it mere hours later. They need to do so because an independent Senate analysis late yesterday made clear what everyone already knew: The bill would add to the deficit enormously. In a normal legislative process, the Senate would have received that analysis long before taking any vote. Now senators are searching for changes to make the bill more politically palatable. But the notion of making those changes today and then speeding immediately to a vote is madness. There would be no time for experts to consider the consequences — to discover the sort of problems and unintended effects that last-minute changes are bound to create. By the time they did, the Senate would have passed it. Already, the tax bill has been pushed ahead in an unprecedented fashion. Obamacare had months of hearings and debates. So did the tax cuts signed by George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and the deficit-reduction packages signed by Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. Only three Republican senators are needed to stop this. It can be any combination of senators who care about the dignity of the institution, the deficit and the middle class. I hope that there are at least three such senators, who woke up this morning and realized the madness of passing major tax legislation in extreme haste. Elsewhere. [The Atlantic’s Ronald Brownstein notes]( that the House and Senate tax bills mostly benefit older, whiter Americans — and push their negative effects onto younger, more racially diverse generations. “The irony is that older, white America needs more of younger, diverse America to ascend into the middle class so it can generate the tax revenue to support the baby boom’s retirement. Yet with these tax bills, the old are strapping a boulder onto the backs of the young as they attempt that climb,” he writes. In The Times. “President Trump has single-handedly done more to undermine the basic tenets of American democracy than any foreign agent or foreign propaganda campaign could,” [Thomas Edsall wrote yesterday](. Today, [Sarah Leah Whitson writes about Saudi elites]( who have now had their own tools of oppression turned against them. The full Opinion report from The Times follows. Op-Ed Columnist [Republicans’ Tax Lies Show the Rot Spreads Wide and Runs Deep]( By PAUL KRUGMAN Bad faith touches every aspect of the G.O.P.’s sales pitch to ram a bill through. Op-Ed Columnist [Trump Is Cracking Up]( By MICHELLE GOLDBERG The president is acting more deranged than usual, but Republicans in Congress don’t care. Contributing Op-Ed Writer [In the End, Reality Will Win]( By TIMOTHY EGAN Is there no bottom? We may soon learn that Trump won a gold medal in synchronized swimming. Op-Ed Columnist [The Farthest Point of a Burmese Journey]( By ROGER COHEN It was plunder, plunder over generations, that had produced this desolation and violence. Editorial [Help Wanted: Top Diplomat Sought]( By THE EDITORIAL BOARD President Trump undermined Rex Tillerson’s success at the State Department, but that doesn’t mean his successor will do a better job. Contributing Op-Ed Writer [How Rex Tillerson Did So Much Damage in So Little Time]( By ANTONY J. BLINKEN The secretary of state, who may be forced out soon, presided over a historic gutting of the Foreign Service. But his replacement might be worse. [It’s a Gay, Gay, Gay Government]( [Mayor Robert Moon of Palm Springs, Calif., speaking at the World Association of Marching Show Bands opening ceremony on Tuesday. Mr. Moon is the city’s third openly gay mayor.]( Mayor Robert Moon of Palm Springs, Calif., speaking at the World Association of Marching Show Bands opening ceremony on Tuesday. Mr. Moon is the city’s third openly gay mayor. Alex Welsh for The New York Times By FRANK BRUNI When the rainbow flag drapes every elected official, does it change a city’s hue? HOW ARE WE DOING? We’d love your feedback on this newsletter. Please email thoughts and suggestions to [leonhardt@nytimes.com](mailto:leonhardt@nytimes.com?subject=Opinion%20Today%20Newsletter%20Feedback). ADVERTISEMENT Contributing Op-Ed Writer [Prime Minister, Tell Trump He’s Not Welcome in Britain]( By MATTHEW D’ANCONA The president’s endorsement of a fringe far-right group undermines our country — and the special relationship. Editorial [Kellyanne Conway Might as Well Be ‘Opioid Czar’]( By THE EDITORIAL BOARD President Trump trusts Ms. Conway. Is that enough to get something done on the opioid addiction crisis? Bianca Bagnarelli [Opinion]( [How Doctors Fail Women Who Don’t Want Children]( By ALANNA WEISSMAN I know I want to be sterilized. Why is it such a fight? Contributing Op-Ed Writer [Happy Anniversary, Heart Transplant]( By SANDEEP JAUHAR Fifty years after the first procedure in a human, the organ still has a hold on us. Op-Ed Contributor [When Elites Get a Taste of Their Own Medicine]( By SARAH LEAH WHITSON Saudi Arabia’s royals and rich had long been immune to the worst failures of the kingdom’s brutal system. Not anymore. Op-Ed Contributor [Don’t Erase Garrison Keillor]( By BARI WEISS I hate “Prairie Home Companion.” But I think it’s dead wrong to stop rebroadcasting past episodes. On Campus [The Right Way to Fix Universities]( By EMILY J. LEVINE AND MITCHELL L. STEVENS New taxes are not the answer. A radical reorientation of their mission is. LIKE THIS EMAIL? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up [here](. ADVERTISEMENT In Case You Missed It [The Self-Destruction of American Democracy]( By THOMAS B. EDSALL Forget Russia for a minute and look where Trump is taking us. Letter [Psychiatrists Warn About Trump’s Mental State]( Dr. Bandy X. Lee of Yale calls for an urgent evaluation of the president. SIGN UP FOR THE VIETNAM ’67 NEWSLETTER Examining America’s long war in Southeast Asia [through the course]( of a single year. FOLLOW OPINION [Facebook] [FACEBOOK]( [Twitter] [@nytopinion]( [Pinterest] [Pinterest]( Get more [NYTimes.com newsletters »](  | Get unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps. [Subscribe »]( ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's Opinion Today newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Change Your Email]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( | [Advertise]( Copyright 2017 The New York Times Company 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018