What do you need when you already have everything?

“Republicans Senators are working hard to pass the biggest Tax Cuts in the history of our Country. The Bill is getting better and better. This is a once in a generation chance. Obstructionist Dems trying to block because they think it is too good and will not be given the credit!” – Trump tweet 12-1-17

When I was 17 a friend of mine called me about a summer job with a company that builds swimming pools. He told me “the guy” that owned it was paying big money and threw a party with beer, weed and girls by the pool at his house every Saturday after work. Working outside, big money, beer, weed and girls sounded exactly like what the 17-year-old me was looking for. I filled out the application and got the job.

As it turns out “the guy” I’ll call him Rob, was a trust fund baby from a very wealthy local family. He had just spent six years in college but left without one very important item, a degree. He used some of his trust fund to buy an existing pool company, changed the name to something cool and hippy dippy, hired a slick salesman, and an older woman we all called Mom to run the office and handle the accounting.

I worked on the crew and reported to a kid not much older than I was that had the title of superintendent. Rob’s responsibility was to make sure the hole was dug and the materials were on the site before we, the crew, arrived. If everything went correctly, weather, materials, etc. we could build a pool in a day and a half.

This would be Rob’s first summer owning the company and he knew, hell we all knew that out of 12 months these four summer months would be the time he made most of his money for the year so it stood to reason he would take it seriously and work as hard as we did. What I learned that summer is this, people who already have everything aren’t motivated by those of us that don’t have anything.

By the end of the summer Rob was basically missing in action (MIA). His slick salesman had quit, vendors were demanding materials be paid for in advance and our paychecks started bouncing. Rob loved the idea of having a business card that said he was President of Hippy Dippy pool company but uninterested in the heavy lifting it took to make it successful. He had never had to work. He had never had to make a customer happy or motivate employees. What he was good at, what he knew how to do and all that he wanted to do was to project the aura of importance and make himself happy.

When I read “our” Presidents tweet this morning I thought about Rob. If any of you are paying attention you will realize that the only part of “our” Presidents body that is actively involved in tax reform are his thumbs. “The Bill is getting better and better” because it has no place to go but up. Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, a man who should be the point person for Trump on tax reform is citing reports that simply don’t exist. I mean REALLY don’t exist. He has told anyone that will listen that he and his staff are reviewing all of the different scenarios with a fine tooth comb. They aren’t and they haven’t and now they are in trouble for lying.

You see Mnuchin, like Trump and Rob love the idea of having a business card with their title on it but when it comes to the heavy lifting of Making America Great Again they are all MIA. Mnuchin would rather pose for Instagram photos with his trophy wife than to truly analyze the good and the bad of the proposed tax reform bill. Again, when you already have everything how can you be motivated for those of us that don’t have anything.

The long and short of the proposed tax bill that the Republicans are desperately trying to ram down Americas throat just so they can put six points on the scoreboard before the year ends is that it is BAD for 99% of us but namely those who put Trump in office. The problem, what makes me mad as hell is that Trump and the people within his administration that are supposed to be watching over this are simply detached from what is actually going on. Does it strike any of you as odd that the Senate and Congress are working on competing bills rather than one together? Knowing this little simple factoid certainly shines a light on why the Democrats haven’t been invited to the negotiation table. There are too many tables.

Trump tweets that “Dems trying to block because they think it is too good and will not be given the credit!” is his attempt to circumvent the ultimate devastation and destruction these efforts will have on working and middle-income families. The only winners here will be the wealthy and corporations and EVERYONE seems to know that except the people with the big red R next to their name. But they know, they just can’t afford to let us know that they know.

The Republican tax bill is a massive gift to corporations and the very wealthy, a gift bought and paid for by the working and middle-income families of America. You can put all the lipstick and mascara you want on this pig and at the end of the day, for Deplorable families, it will still be a pig. But they aren’t going to know that because Sean Hannity is too busy talking about Hillary Clinton, the “Deep State” within the Department of Justice and illegal immigration. And “their” President is telling them that the “Republicans Senators are working hard to pass the biggest Tax Cuts in the history of our Country.” They will find out soon enough though when they learn that they can’t deduct Momma’s assisted living expenses, or the care of sick and disabled family members, or student loan interest, or alimony payments, or……………

I guess we should all be thankful for the “Golden Shower” of trickle down economics and that Steven Mnuchin can post cool photographs on his Instagram account. What do you need when you already have everything?