The political news cycle is fast, and keeping up can be overwhelming. Trying to find differing perspectives worth your time is even harder. That’s why we have scoured the internet for political writing from the right and left that you might not have seen.
Has this series exposed you to new ideas? Tell us how. Email us at ourpicks@nytimes.com.
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From the Right
“#Resist means no cooperation, no cutting deals, none of the usual give-and-take of democracy.”
Democrats may soon regret that the tax bill was passed along strictly partisan lines, Mr. Graham argues. He contrasts the tax bill with the passage of Obamacare, which he writes “was a fundamental shift in how our government treated health care,” not a dispute over details. Had Democrats not been so loathe to cooperate with the party led by President Trump, he writes, perhaps the two sides could have settled on a compromise to “split the corporate tax rate at 25 percent, get rid of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) Republicans hate, but keep the full deductibility of state and local taxes paid by rich liberals in blue states.” Read more »
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Kevin D. Williamson in National Review:
“Republicans have had their spoonful of sugar. Time for the medicine.”
Mr. Williamson describes the tax cuts enacted by Republicans as a “dessert-first approach to fiscal policy.” Now, he says, they must begin the hard work of closing the deficit gap exacerbated by the cuts. Any claim that the cuts will pay for themselves, he writes, “a free-lunch fantasy.” Read more »
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James Piereson in American Greatness:
“To survive in a competitive universe, blue state governors and legislatures may have little choice but to reduce taxes and pare back public services and public employment — in other words, to abandon the blue state model.”
For Mr. Piereson, there is an added benefit to the new tax bill. By limiting the deductions taxpayers can take for local and state taxes, the new structure will punish highly taxed states and “accelerate the demise of the blue state model.” A model, he argues, that has been too generous to public-employee unions. Read more »
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From the Left
“What the party-line vote revealed is that the Republican caucus is entirely insulated from the normal populist considerations that ought to prevail in a functioning democracy.”
Mr. Kim points out how unpopular the tax bill was among American citizens before it passed. The procedural and partisan gamesmanship that allowed its enactment, he argues, signals that Republicans in Congress are more compelled by personal and political interest than representing the will of the people. Read more »
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Miles Kampf-Lassin in In These Times:
“It’s a new front in the class war.”
According to Mr. Kampf-Lassin, the tax bill marks what will be yet “another shock” to the American economy. And yet, he writes, it’s an opportunity to embrace a populist movement that may actually “push for a real alternative to the shock of an entrenched corporatist system.” Read more »
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The editorial board of The Washington Post:
“The bill is a win for know-nothing anti-intellectualism.”
In the short term, writes the editorial board of The Washington Post, the passage of the tax bill marks a victory for the president. In the long term, they warn, the legislation will “very likely will be remembered as an ignominious moment for Republicans.” Read more »
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Finally, From the Center
Nate Silver in Five Thirty Eight:
“Voters probably aren’t being quite so single- and literal-minded about whether or not they’re getting a tax cut.”
One argument many on the right have used to counter the low poll numbers favoring the tax bill has been to suggest that once voters see more money in their pockets, their view of the bill will brighten. Mr. Silver advises his readers to take such voters with concerns about the bill “seriously but not literally.” Their answers to pollsters, he writes, may “signal their overall skepticism and discomfort with the bill — discomfort that also registers when they’re asked other questions about the bill that have nothing to do with their personal finances.” Read more »
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“President Trump believes he has just won a great victory in Congress with final passage of huge tax cuts in sight. He should not be so cheerful; it could mark the beginning of the end for him and his party.”
Mr. Bartlett, an independent who was formerly a Republican, warns Mr. Trump not to be so cheerful about the passage of his signature legislative victory for the year. Now that he has signed a tax bill and appointed a number of conservative federal judges, the Republican Party may have found that this president is “expendable.” Read more »
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