The Article, "Billionaires Desperately Need Our Help"

I just read a delightful op-ed by Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times. It was funny and insightful. It was titled, "Billionaires Desperately Need Our Help," and it sardonically lambastes the Grand Old Party's recent tax plan. Probably the most pointed and poignant line in the piece is, "The tax bill underscores a political truth: There's nothing wrong with redistribution when it's done right."

Damn, that's true. Many conservatives get riled up when they see the government helping the poor because they deem that to be income redistribution, but when phenomenal tax breaks are given to the wealthiest people in the U.S., they see this as perfectly kosher.

 Also true is that many in that party rail against the federal debt. Yet, this tax bill could raise the national debt by 1.7 trillion dollars;the rationale, they say, is that we have to temporarily owe more to let the tax cuts for the wealthy spur on the economy.

There's only one problem with this thinking: It's never worked in the real world. Some might say it's never really been tried, but if that is the case, do we really want to gamble with adding nearly two trillion dollars to the national debt on a hunch that is, well, a hunch?

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