Thread by @alexdschiller

THREAD.
1/ To the Republicans in my network, respectfully...

The 400 wealthiest Americans paid lower tax rates in 2018 than any other income group for the first time in history.

The average pay increase for the rest of us was about 3%.

2/ Are you one of those 400? Has that wealth trickled down? Were you able to utilize the private jet deduction? Are your tax cuts permanent?

3/ Or are you in the pile with the rest of us, celebrating a $30 per week raise while factories close down and workers strike and farms go bankrupt and consumer prices go up...

4/ ...quietly wondering how and when this "unprecedented" wealth and growth we keep hearing about will actually start making our lives better?

5/ Do you think these 400 families are lining up to pay down the extra $4 trillion or so this administration added to the deficit? Your family's share is about $60 grand.

How many weeks of that extra $30 will it take to cover that?

Those 400 make it in a day. Maybe a few hours

6/ They tell you to blame your difficulties on immigrants. And minorities. And democrats. And lazy poor people. And social programs. They sell you religion. They sell you authority. They sell you identity.

They sell you lies.

7/ And all the while, their hands are in your pocket. In all of our pockets.

All of the numbers, all of the wealth, all of the tax savings celebrated as Trump's great accomplishments - if you remove these 400 people, *all* those numbers go down.

8/ It's not *your* wealth. It's not *your* tax savings. You're not a temporarily set-back billionaire. You're just a regular joe like me and everyone else.

But it is your deficit. It is your healthcare. It is your education. It is your environment.

9/ It's your country. Why are you just giving it away? And what exactly are you getting back?

So ask yourself, are you one of the 400 for whose benefit the Republican party exists?

10/ Do you really believe these 400 pump hundreds of millions into PAC's and dark money groups because they just love guns and hate abortion and want to help you?

11/ When you catch them lying to and about the media and Democrats a dozen times a day... do you honestly believe they would never presume to lie to you too?

12/ Or is it just a little bit possible that the only goal of Republican mega donors is to enrich Republican mega donors, and that they're willing to lie to anyone and everyone in order to empower Republicans to continue to empower themselves?

13/ The welfare recipients you need to worry about aren't the ones who need a few dollars a week for food and medicine. They're not taking but pennies from your paycheck. And you're one bad day or horrible phone call away from being in that *exact* same spot.

14/ The welfare we pay to billionaires costs us literal trillions. And they'll keep investing fractions of those fortunes to convince you to vote for what they want, by pretending to care about what you want.

15/ But *all* they want is money and power. It's all they've ever wanted. Their objective isn't to serve you. It never has been. You are not the consumer of Republican-led government. You are the consumed.

16/ You might be on the Republicans team... But, at this point, can you honestly say they're on yours?

/END

#GOP #Taxes #Wealth #Welfare