A thread for Democrats Only
POSTED BY: THGRRI
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 15:36
VIEWED: 755368
PAGE 23 of 725
The Senate bill was so hastily drafted that it contains important provisions — most significantly around the corporate alternative minimum tax — that GOP leaders seem to genuinely want to scrap. So they really will have to write another bill and pass it again, and while the odds are very good that they'll succeed, those odds drop a lot if Democrat Doug Jones rather than Roy Moore replaces Alabama Senator Luther Strange.
With Strange holding the seat, there are 52 GOP senators (plus Vice President Mike Pence), so they can handle the defection of two senators and still pass a bill. If it's Jones instead, they can only handle one defection. And we already know that Bob Corker has decided he objects to the scale of the borrowing involved.
Operating with zero margin for error on such a large and complex bill is dangerous, because it means any single senator can credibly threaten to derail the whole thing unless he gets his pet provisions.
Republicans need Roy Moore to pass their tax bill. Starting today Moore is once again a good Republican.
Until today, Republicans could say that, officially at least, they have repudiated Roy Moore’s noxious behavior, which goes far beyond molesting teenage girls. Not anymore:
President Trump on Monday strongly endorsed Roy S. Moore, the Republican nominee for a United States Senate seat here, prompting the Republican National Committee to restore its support for a candidate accused of sexual misconduct against teenage girls.
Mr. Trump’s endorsement and the party’s reversal hours later came a day after Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, had stepped back from his earlier criticism of Mr. Moore.
www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/12/republicans-decide-roy-moore-is
-a-good-republican-he-is/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
The Senate Tax Bill's corporate alternative minimum tax, explained
www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/7/16742046/senate-tax-bill-cor
porate-amt
This is a separate tax calculation under current law, used to make sure that businesses are forced to pay at least a base level of federal taxes and can’t totally avoid taxes by taking various deductions and credits. Few businesses pay it currently, because their regular rate is usually higher than the AMT rate, which works out to about 20 percent.
The Senate bill, like the House bill, originally repealed it entirely while slashing the regular corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent. But Senate Republicans, as they tinkered with their tax plan just hours before they put it up for a vote, stuck the corporate AMT back in at the last minute to make sure the bill didn’t raise the federal deficit too much.
At first it looked like a comparatively minimal provision, about $40 billion in revenue over 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation’s quick-hit analysis, in the context of a $1 trillion corporate tax cut.
But over the past few days, policy experts, lobbyists, and the business community have come to believe the stakes are much bigger. Senate Republicans may have accidentally created this new tax system where many or even most businesses would end up paying the AMT — and would lose many prized tax breaks.
The corporate AMT problem in the Senate tax bill
The problem is that the current AMT rate is about the same as the new corporate rate that Republicans want to institute. Under the Senate bill, businesses were supposed to be able to have the new 20 percent rate, but then also take advantage of tax credits and deductions to drive their tax burden even lower.
But if the AMT remains instead of being repealed, then businesses largely wouldn’t get their effective tax rate any lower than that. The AMT rate is usually substantially lower than the regular rate. But under the Senate bill, the AMT and the new corporate rate would be about the same: 20 percent. Companies would no longer be able to take advantage of tax breaks for research and development and the like. The whole point of the AMT is to eliminate deductions.
“Basically everyone would pay it,” one lobbyist tracking the tax bill told me, adding for emphasis that fixing it would be the No. 1 and No. 2 priority for Republicans now.
Based on some rough estimates, under the Senate tax bill the corporate AMT would bring in $300 billion or more over 10 years, substantially eating into the $1 trillion tax cut for businesses that Republicans thought they were passing.
The AMT issue doesn’t create any immediate political problems, perhaps, but it could drag out the debate for a House/Senate version of the tax bill. Republicans can’t really afford to lose any of the 51 senators who voted for the plan. If support in the Senate does waver, the AMT issue would probably make it impossible for Republicans to take a backup plan and have the House just pass the Senate bill.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Oonjerah:
THGRRI is an independent. JSF is an independent.
By the very definition of the word, no two
independents need be alike or even similar. :)
... oooOO}{OOooo ...
Again, words of wisdom. I would add my independence streak lies in the middle. I would suggest because of JSF's posts, he/she is way off to the right. Even based in ignorance and hate.
T
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
THGRRI is an independent. JSF is an independent.
By the very definition of the word, no two independents need be alike or even similar. - OONJ
So which independent would be included in the subset "Democrats only" do you think?- JSF
Obviously, only the ones who agree with THUGR.
That's a start, yet I think JSF's far right and demented thinking disqualifies him/her.
T
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by THGRRI:
T
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I wonder whether Obama was drunk when he was on his 57 state tour?
Do Right, Be Right. :)
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Do you recognize sarcasm when you read it? Or quote it?
Originally posted by THGRRI:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
THGRRI is an independent. JSF is an independent.
By the very definition of the word, no two independents need be alike or even similar. - OONJ
So which independent would be included in the subset "Democrats only" do you think?- JSF
Obviously, only the ones who agree with THUGR.
That's a start, yet I think JSF's far right and demented thinking disqualifies him/her.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Those montages of Obama stutters, sputters, speech gaffes are hilarious. Trump cannot rank up with the Ebonics-in-Chief gaffemaster.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I wonder whether Obama was drunk when he was on his 57 state tour?
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Some people don't seem to realize that Trump on his worst day is not in the same league or depths as Obama on his Mo Betta Bestest Day. Even Trump on a day of being dead is fresh air compared to Bobo.
Do all Ebonics speakers not know how to pronounce corpse man? Or is that merely demonstration of Obamination's illiteracy?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:Do you recognize sarcasm when you read it? Or quote it?
Originally posted by THGRRI:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
THGRRI is an independent. JSF is an independent.
By the very definition of the word, no two independents need be alike or even similar. - OONJ
So which independent would be included in the subset "Democrats only" do you think?- JSF
Obviously, only the ones who agree with THUGR.
That's a start, yet I think JSF's far right and demented thinking disqualifies him/her.
Do you?
T
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME