If it passes the GOP Tax bill would state a logical case for the breakup of the United States. By eliminating the deduction for state and local taxes, the bill increases the tax burden primarily on blue states — which tend to be more prosperous and urban.
Let’s take a look at California. Californians can argue that Enron conspired to deprive the state of electricity two decades ago. The lights only came back on when the Democratic governor was recalled and a Republican elected in his place. The blackouts were aided and abetted by lose regulations pushed by Republicans. It could be argued that Enron’s role in the blackouts constituted an attack by the states of Texas upon the people of the state of California.
Then we get to the housing crisis that caused unemployment in California. The crisis was brought about by lax regulation pushed by the Bush administration. The story seems to be Republican backed corporate interests looting the state of California.
So far, a counter argument can be made that none of this was targeted and that it just happened.
Now we have a tax bill aimed at damaging the economy of the state of California. If the economy keeps roaring ahead maybe nobody notices. But what happens if we have a recession?
For that matter what about CHIP and Obamacare? If both of those programs begin to fail, then it could become possible to point to actual — identifiable — dead as a result of Republican policies. Even more so, the public at large is unlikely to see things coming out of Washington at the same time as separate. If the economy of your state slows because the Republican Party used the tax code to attack you, and your kid loses insurance because of something that happened in Washington you’re likely to see the entire thing as an attack on your family.
It’s not just California, many state’s are going to have similar experiences. These are the kind of stories that are told to explain why new nations our founded.
I can wish (though I doubt I’ll get my wish) that Republicans in Washington would stop and think. If you make the government a vehicle for direct attack upon Americans based on their political beliefs then you put the country in a perilous place that it has not been since the nullification crisis of 1832. DON’T DO THIS! It cannot end well.