There was a time when the Democrats were the party of working Americans. They seemed to understand and fight for the interests of the working class and people living in poverty. Republicans, by contrast, struggled for decades with the perception that they were “for the rich.”
Well, how things have turned around. Just look at the latest economic pronouncements of leading establishment Democrats.
Here in my home state of California, in response to President Trump signing the GOP tax reform bill into law, state Senate Democratic leader Kevin de Leon has taken up a new cause: fighting for the right of the richest Californians to evade their taxes.
It’s almost unbelievable – but true. De Leon (who is also the leading challenger to Sen. Dianne Feinstein in her primary battle as she seeks re-election this year) has proposed setting up a new so-called charity that would enable the Silicon Valley and Hollywood elite to claw back their losses from the Trump administration’s new tax reform law.
If you’re a member of a working family struggling to make ends meet (as pretty much half of American families are after the economic disaster of the Bush and Obama years), then $1,000 makes a real difference.
That tax reform law, let’s remind ourselves, actually means that some of the richest people in the richest parts of America will pay more in taxes, thanks to drastic cuts in deductions for state and local taxes they pay.
To fight off President Trump’s vicious attack on their rich friends (read: donors), California Democrats want to set up a “California Excellence Fund.” Donations to the fund would be matched dollar-for-dollar by tax credits, which can then be subtracted from tax bills as “charity.” It’s a classic liberal version of charity, mind you: all the money would go straight into the coffers of the state government’s general fund.
Who would benefit from this bit of creative accounting? Californians earning over $1 million a year, mainly.
“‘Kevin de Leon: the last best hope for California millionaires.” Not sure he wants that as the bumper sticker for his campaign against Feinstein, but as they say: when someone tells you who they are, believe them.
Another prominent California Democrat also revealed her true colors this past week over taxes: our old friend, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. She dismissed $1,000 worker bonuses given in response to the GOP tax cuts as “crumbs.”
Well yes, that’s what $1,000 may mean to you if you’re married to a wealthy real estate tycoon and live in splendor in San Francisco. But if you’re a member of a working family struggling to make ends meet (as pretty much half of American families are after the economic disaster of the Bush and Obama years), then $1,000 makes a real difference.
You can see the new left elitism in their attitude to immigration too. Their total rejection of any effort to clamp down on the out-of-control low-wage immigration that harms American workers shows that establishment Democrats’ sympathies now lie with big business, not working people.
That’s not true of the Democrats’ populist wing, of course. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont quite rightly points out that it’s corporate America that wants mass immigration.
In a 2105 interview Sanders said: “Bring in all kinds of people, work for $2 or $3 an hour, that would be great for them. I don't believe in that. I think we have to raise wages in this country, I think we have to do everything we can to create millions of jobs. You know what youth unemployment is in the United States of America today? If you're a white high school graduate, it's 33 percent, Hispanic 36 percent, African American 51 percent. You think we should open the borders and bring in a lot of low-wage workers, or do you think maybe we should try to get jobs for those kids?”
That’s Donald Trump’s position too: and rightly so. But establishment Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Kevin de Leon and all the rest who are busy attacking the president’s pro-worker economic agenda have totally lost touch with the needs and aspirations of working Americans. They demean and dismiss them, preferring the company – and the interests – of their wealthy friends and donors.
That’s today’s elitist Democrats: they’ve become the party of the rich, sneering at the poor.
Author's note: We’ll be debating all this on Sunday night on “The Next Revolution” at 9 p.m. EST on FNC. Hope you can join us!
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