sinema, K Rep

=<div>oops, see Sen</div><div></div><div>new</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/kyrsten-sinema-corruption/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/kyrsten-sinema-corruption/</a></div><div>
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</div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/kyrsten-sinema-environment-climate-change-2619538159.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/kyrsten-sinema-environment-climate-change-2619538159.html</a></div><div>
</div><div>thom h</div><div>
</div><div>when <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/ag/legacy/2011/01/20/09-25-1963.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Bobby Kennedy went after organized crime</a> in the early 1960s, one of the things he learned was that the <a href="https://people.howstuffworks.com/mafia.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Mafia had a series of rituals</a> new members went through to declare their loyalty and promise they'd never turn away from their new benefactors. Once in, they'd be showered with money and protection, but they <a href="http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/R%20Disk/Roselli%20John/Item%2013.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">could never leave and even faced </a>serious problems if they betrayed the syndicate.</div>Which brings us to the story of Kyrsten Sinema.<div id="story_page_incontent_p2_target" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5155643920455169" data-ad-slot="6339868799" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; text-align: center; margin-bottom: 20px; display: block;" /></div>For a republican democracy to actually work, average citizens with a passion for making their country better must be able to run for public office without needing wealthy or powerful patrons; this is a concept that<a href="https://ukdiss.com/examples/aristotle-views-of-democracy.php" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"> dates back to Aristotle's rants </a>on the topic. And Sinema was, in the beginning, just that sort of person. But I'm getting ahead of myself…After the Nixon and Agnew bribery scandals were fully revealed with a series of congressional investigations leading to Nixon's resignation in 1974, Congress passed and President Jerry Ford signed into law a series of "good government" laws that provided for public funding of elections and strictly limited the role of big money in campaigns.Just like the 1/6 attack on the Capitol produced a "select" committee to investigate the anti-democracy crimes of Donald Trump and his cronies, Congress authorized the <a href="https://www.cop.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/watergate.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities</a> to look into Nixon's abuses and make recommendations.The committee's 100-page report documented how Nixon had taken bribes (most notably $400,000 from ITT to squash an antitrust lawsuit); used "dark" money from wealthy friends and corporations to set up astroturf "citizens committees" (an early version of the Tea Party) to make it appear he had widespread support among the American public; and used off-the-books money to both support loyal Republican politicians whose help he needed as well as to pay for his "opposition research" surveillance which included the Watergate break-in of the DNC's headquarters.In response to the report, Congress passed an exhaustive set of new laws and regulations, most significantly <a href="https://www.fec.gov/about/mission-and-history/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">creating from scratch the Federal Elections Commission</a> (FEC), outlawing secret donations to politicians while providing for public funding of federal elections to diminish the power of big money. (<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/06/15/jimmy-carter-calls-for-return-to-publicly-financed-elections/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Jimmy Carter was the only presidential candidate to win using such public funding</a>.)Over the years since, conservatives on the Supreme Court have repeatedly gutted provisions of the 1974 amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), most famously in 2010 with their notorious Citizens United decision,with that stroke, over the loud objections of the four "liberals" on the Court, corporations were absolutely deemed as "persons" with full constitutional rights, and billionaires or corporations pouring massive amounts of money into campaign coffers was changed from "bribery and political corruption" to an exercise of the constitutionally-protected "right of free speech."Into this milieu stepped Kyrsten Sinema, running from a seat in the Arizona Senate for the US House of Representatives in 2012 as an "out" bisexual and political progressive. The campaign quickly turned ugly.Following the Citizens United script, the Republican she confronted in that race (Vernon Parker) used corporate and billionaire money to carpet-bomb their district airwaves with ads calling her "a radical left-wing activist promoting hatred toward our country, our allies, and our families" and warning people that she "engaged in pagan rituals.
[vid]the district was heavily Democratic (Obama handily won it that year) but the race was close enough that it took six full days for the AP to call it for Sinema. And that, apparently, was when she decided that if you can only barely beat them, you'd damn well better join them.Sinema quickly joined other Democrats who'd followed the Citizens United path to the flashing neon lights of big money, joining the so-called "<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/12/14/no-labels-and-problem-solvers-are-wolves-wall-street-sheeps-clothing" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Problem Solvers</a>" caucus that owes its existence in part to the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/12/14/no-labels-and-problem-solvers-are-wolves-wall-street-sheeps-clothing" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Wall Street-funded front group</a> "No Labels."Quietly and without fanfare, she began voting with Republicans and the corporate- and billionaire-owned Democrats, supporting efforts to <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2021/03/kyrsten-sinema-transformation-democrat-arizona-minimum-wage" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">deregulate big banks, "reform" Social Security and Medicare, and make it harder to for government to protect regular investors</a> or even <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/09/democratic-candidates-chamber-commerce-endorsement/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">buyers of used cars</a> from being ripped off.<div class="proper-ad-unit postContent15" style="margin: auto; position: relative; width: 654.938px; min-width: 100px; text-align: center; box-sizing: border-box !important;"><div id="proper-ad-alternet_content_3" style="position: relative; margin: auto; box-sizing: border-box !important;">She <a href="https://www.uschamber.com/how-they-voted-2013-house" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">voted with the Chamber 77 percent of the time</a> in her first term; in return, political networks run by rightwing billionaires and the US Chamber of Commerce showered her with support. In her first re-election race, in 2014, she was <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/09/democratic-candidates-chamber-commerce-endorsement/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">one of only five democrats</a> endorsed by the notoriously rightwing Chamber.She'd proved herself as a "made woman," just like the old mafiosi documented by RFK in the 1960s, willing to do whatever it takes, compromise whatever principles she espoused, to get into and stay in the good graces of the large and well-funded rightwing syndicates unleashed by Citizens United.So it should surprise precisely nobody that Sinema is parroting the Chamber's and the billionaire network's line that President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan is too generous in helping and protecting average Americans and too punitive in taxing the morbidly rich. After all, once you're in, you leave at your own considerable peril, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/10/08/cruel-and-unfathomable-sinema-pushing-100-billion-climate-cuts-reconciliation-bill" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">even when 70 percent of your state's voters want the bill to pass</a>.And this is a genuine crisis for America because if President Biden is frustrated in his attempt to pass his Build Back Better legislation (that is overwhelmingly supported by Americans across the political spectrum) — all because business groups, giant corporations and rightwing billionaires are asserting ownership over their two "made" senators — there's a very good chance that today's cynicism and political violence is just a preview of the rest of the decade.<div class="proper-ad-unit" style="margin: auto; position: relative; width: 654.938px; min-width: 100px; text-align: center; box-sizing: border-box !important;"><div id="proper-ad-alternet_content_4" style="position: relative; margin: auto; box-sizing: border-box !important;">But this isn't as much a story about Sinema as it is about today's larger political dysfunction for which she's become, along with Joe Manchin, a poster child.Increasingly, because of the <a href="https://amzn.to/3v4N2oL" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Supreme Court's betrayal of American values</a>, it's become impossible for people like the younger Sinema to rise from social worker to the United States Senate without big money behind them. Our media is absolutely unwilling to call this what <a href="http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/youngamerica/exhibits/show/andrew-jackson-real-or-fraud/spoils-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">even Andrew Jackson</a> would have labeled it: political corruption. But that's what it is and it's eating away at our republic like a metastasized cancer.A <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/10/10/how-to-help-reverse-democratic-decline.cnn" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">guest on Brian Stelter's CNN program</a> yesterday pointed out that there are today more autocracies in the world than democracies and, generally, democracies are on the decline. This corruption of everyday politics by the rich and powerful is how democracies begin the shift to autocracy or oligarchy, as I document in gruesome detail in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-History-American-Oligarchy-Reclaiming/dp/1523091584/ref=thomhartmann" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Hidden History of American Oligarchy: Reclaiming Our Democracy from the Ruling Class</a>.While the naked corruption of Sinema and Joe Manchin is a source of outrage for Democrats across America, what's far more important is that it reveals how deep the rot of money in American politics has gone, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/History-Supreme-Betrayal-America-Hartmann/dp/1523085940/ref=thomhartmann" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">thanks entirely to a corrupted Supreme Court</a>.<div class="proper-ad-unit" style="margin: auto; position: relative; width: 654.938px; min-width: 100px; text-align: center; box-sizing: border-box !important;"><div id="proper-ad-alternet_content_5" style="position: relative; margin: auto; box-sizing: border-box !important;">In <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-205.ZX.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Justice Stevens' dissent in Citizens United</a>, he pointed out that corporations in their modern form didn't even exist when the Constitution was written in 1787 and got its first ten amendments in 1791, including the First which protects free speech."All general business corporation statues appear to date from well after 1800," Stevens pointed out to his conservative colleagues on the Court. "The Framers thus took it as a given that corporations could be comprehensively regulated in the service of the public welfare. Unlike our colleagues, they had little trouble distinguishing corporations from human beings, and when they constitutionalized the right to free speech in the First Amendment, it was the free speech of individual Americans they had in mind."The fact that corporations are different from human beings might seem to need no elaboration, except that the majority opinion almost completely elides it…. Unlike natural persons, corporations have 'limited liability' for their owners and managers, 'perpetual life,' separation of ownership and control, 'and favorable treatment of the accumulation of assets….' Unlike voters in U.S. elections, corporations may be foreign controlled."Noting that corporations "inescapably structure the life of every citizen," Stevens continued: "It might be added that corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their 'personhood' often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of 'We the People' by whom and for whom our Constitution was established."Even worse than the short-term effect of a corporation's dominating an election or a ballot initiative, Stevens said (as if he had a time machine to look at us now), was the fact that corporations corrupting politics would, inevitably, cause average working Americans — the 95 percent who make less than $100,000 a year — to conclude that their "democracy" is now rigged.The result, Stevens wrote, is that average people would simply stop participating in politics, stop being informed about politics, and stop voting…or become angry and cynical. Our democracy, he suggested, would be immeasurably damaged and ultimately vulnerable to corporate-supported demagogues and oligarchs. Our constitutional republic, if Citizens United stands, could wither and could die."In addition to this immediate drowning out of noncorporate voices," Stevens wrote in 2010, "there may be deleterious effects that follow soon thereafter. Corporate 'domination' of electioneering can generate the impression that corporations dominate our democracy."When citizens turn on their televisions and radios before an election and hear only corporate electioneering, they may lose faith in their capacity, as citizens, to influence public policy. A Government captured by corporate interests, they may come to believe, will be neither responsive to their needs nor willing to give their views a fair hearing."The predictable result is cynicism and disenchantment: an increased perception that large spenders 'call the tune' and a reduced 'willingness of voters to take part in democratic governance.' To the extent that corporations are allowed to exert undue influence in electoral races, the speech of the eventual winners of those races may also be chilled." (Emphasis mine)As if he were looking at Kyrsten Sinema facing a tough choice about her own political survival leading up to the 2014 election, Stevens added:"Politicians who fear that a certain corporation can make or break their reelection chances may be cowed into silence about that corporation."And, again looking into his time machine to today, the now-deceased Stevens pointed to the frustration of average Americans with Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin."On a variety of levels, unregulated corporate electioneering might diminish the ability of citizens to 'hold officials accountable to the people,' and disserve the goal of a public debate that is 'uninhibited, robust, and wide-open.'"Stevens and his fellow "liberals" on the Court were both prescient and right.They warned in their dissent that foreign money would corrupt our elections and we saw that in a big way in 2016. There's apparently no way of knowing how much of today's political turmoil — from school board to election commission to hospital and airplane violence — is being orchestrated and amplified by foreign players on social media masquerading as Americans to weaken our country.They warned that because of the Citizens United decision Americans would become cynical and reactionary; that's happening today. Armed militias are in our streets, people are regularly assaulted for their perceived politics, and rightwing media demagogues make millions (literally) promoting hate and fear.And, they warned, it could doom our republic, something that's now within our sight.Thom Hartmann is a <a href="https://www.thomhartmann.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">talk-show host</a> and the author of <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Hidden-History-American-Healthcare-Bankrupts/dp/1523091630/ref=thomhartmann" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Hidden History of American Healthcare</a> and more than <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Thom-Hartmann/e/B000AQ449C" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">30+ other books in print</a>. He is a writing fellow at the <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Independent Media Institute</a> and his writings are archived at <a href="https://hartmannreport.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">hartmannreport.com</a>.This article was produced by <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/economy-for-all/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Economy for All</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.<div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="text-align: left; font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.438px; list-style: none;"><li class="from-your-siteitem" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/kyrsten-sinema-infrastructure/" class="from-your-sitelink rm-stats-tracked" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">New report says Kyrsten Sinema insists on taking vacation even as ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/sinema-2655176969/" class="from-your-sitelink rm-stats-tracked" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Kyrsten Sinema had a curt response to major dissent brewing ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/kyrsten-sinema-2655179630/" class="from-your-sitelink rm-stats-tracked" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">'Setting her political future on fire': Sinema gets caught fundraising ... ›</a></li></ul><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="text-align: left; font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.438px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/newsletter/2021-06-05/kyrsten-sinema-save-democracy-opinion" class="around-the-weblink rm-stats-tracked" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Hey, Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, it's happening here, and you ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/05/from-radical-activist-to-senate-obstructionist-the-metamorphosis-of-kyrsten-sinema/" class="around-the-weblink rm-stats-tracked" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">From Radical Activist to Senate Obstructionist: The Metamorphosis ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/sinema-internship-wine/" class="around-the-weblink rm-stats-tracked" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Kyrsten Sinema's Grapes of Wealth | The Nation ›</a></li></ul></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div>With the nation's attention rightly transfixed by the Senate GOP's monstrous efforts to ram through a Supreme Court nominee who has been credibly accused by multiple women of sexual assault, House Republicans on Friday voted overwhelmingly to approve another <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/house-republicans-pass-bill-to-extend-individual-tax-cuts/2018/09/28/2497d6bc-c326-11e8-97a5-ab1e46bb3bc7_story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">$3 trillion in tax cuts</a> for the wealthiest Americans just weeks before the November midterms.<div style="text-align: left;">"In less than a year, House Republicans have handed out trillions of tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations. Now, middle class families are on the hook for higher healthcare costs, and Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block."</div><div style="text-align: left;">—Rep. Richard Neal</div>"Today the GOP doubled down on last year's giveaway to the donor class known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act," Morris Pearl, chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/PatrioticMills/status/1045708540927709184" style="text-decoration-line: none;">statement</a> following the 220-191 vote. "Tax Cuts 2.0 gives nearly $3 trillion to the wealthiest Americans, and will become yet another excuse for Republicans to slash Medicare and Social Security."<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 20px;">"In less than a year, House Republicans have handed out trillions of tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations," added Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee. "Now, middle class families are on the hook for higher healthcare costs, and Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block."<a href="https://twitter.com/ericawerner/status/1045716277808058369" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Three Democrats</a>—Reps. Conor Lamb (Penn.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.), and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.)—voted for the GOP-crafted measure, which would permanently extend the individual tax cuts under the current Republican tax law.According to the an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center (TPC), the House GOP's measure—which progressive critics have denounced as "Tax Scam 2.0"—would send the vast majority of benefits to the very top."The richest one percent of filers would see an average tax cut of $40,000, while those in the middle 20 percent of earners would see an average cut of $980," the Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/house-republicans-pass-bill-to-extend-individual-tax-cuts/2018/09/28/2497d6bc-c326-11e8-97a5-ab1e46bb3bc7_story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">noted</a> in a summary of TPC's findings. "The American people are already paying too high a price for the GOP's blatant disregard for our families and our economy," Ryan Thomas of the Not One Penny coalition said in a statement on Friday. "This is yet another shameful tax law that would swindle working families and siphon even more funding from the programs that help our communities thrive—all in order to give more tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires and wealthy corporations.""Today's vote is yet another call for us to end the culture of corruption endemic in the Republican Party," Thomas concluded. "The GOP believes they can continue to put the wants of the wealthiest people and corporations above the needs of the American people—but the American people are watching and we will hold them accountable."</div><div style="text-align: left;">==</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>