The Republican tax bill that recently passed in the Senate is in essence highway robbery in the middle of the day with television cameras rolling. It is a huge redistribution of income from lower and middle classes to the upper classes. Taxes are cut for corporations and the rich, and to pay for this gift to the upper classes almost two-thirds of the middle classes get tax increases.
This wealth transfer is not even camouflaged. It is happening right before our eyes. Of course, there is their falsehood that these tax cuts will boost the economy and pay for themselves by the increased revenue from taxes. Out of 38 leading economists surveyed about the prospects of these tax cuts paying for themselves—trickle-down economics—only one agreed.
This bill also wrecks Obamacare, as it repeals the individual mandate, which requires everyone to have health insurance. So they appear to be killing two birds with one stone—getting their perennial quest for tax cuts and damaging Obamacare.
According to the nonpartisan congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, the tax bill will increase the deficit by $1 trillion over 10 years. This massive increase in the deficit seems to be planned, as House Republican Majority Leader Ryan and other Republicans are openly discussing how they will handle this increasing deficit—by cutting “entitlements.” In other words, they will use the deficits to undo the New Deal (relief agencies, Government-regulated economy, Social Security, etc.) and the Great Society (Medicaid, Medicare, anti-poverty programs, etc.)—long-term goals of conservative Republicans.
As Denise Cummins argues in a piece for the PBS Newshour, this is what happens when you take Ayn Rand seriously. Paul Ryan, a proud Ayn Rand devotee, has boasted about his long-ago daydream of getting to the point where he could reduce Medicaid and other social welfare programs. Ryan and many other Republicans subscribe to Ayn Rand’s type of Libertarianism, which basically argues that one should work for self-interest and community be damned.
Whether many of the Republicans are following Ayn Rand philosophy or just following the dictates of their wealthy donors—e.g., the Koch brothers, the Mercer family, Sherman Adelson, etc.—the result is the same.
The core philosophy preached by Ayn Rand, which was exhibited in her novels as well as her non-fiction work is that unrestrained self-interest is good and altruism is bad. Ayn Rand argued against what she called “collectivism,” the interdependence that we have with each other, and argues that the true nature of human societies is for individuals to pursue their own self-interest—and everyone else be damned (my description of her principle of “objectivism”). Fancying myself as a possible libertarian, I once went to hear her talk. I learned just enough to know that I oppose her prescriptions for society.
How can we hope for better policies in the face of such vicious attacks on our collective being? While Ayn Rand’s philosophy of libertarianism argues against our social natures and pushes individualism, history has demonstrated that humans have a tendency to cooperate and to look out for each other.
Nowadays, the Ayn Rand group is in control of the federal government. If more of the poor and working-class whites can be convinced that they suffer because of these so-called libertarian principles and that they benefit from our natural cooperation the wacky world we are currently enduring can be rearranged.