Why the GOP Tax Bill Will Probably Pass

Jonathan Chait: “The party has been organized for more than a quarter-century around the dogma of tax-cutting. Whatever hatred Republicans were able to build up against Obamacare starting in 2009, it cannot match the cumulative effect of 30 years of voodoo-economics dogma. The party’s entire governing class believes both that rich people are unfairly targeted by progressive taxation, and that tax-cutting will absolutely and necessarily generate prosperity. A handful of conservative dissidents question this theology, but they remain marginal to conservative thinking.”

“Cutting taxes for the affluent is truly what Republican politicians got into this business to do. In this way, it is more like the struggle to pass Obamacare than the struggle to repeal it. Democrats were willing to take risks to pass the law in 2010 because helping people get insurance is a core of their public mission.”