Along with a poll released yesterday, Gallup noted that 35% of Americans "name the government, poor leadership or politicians as the greatest problem facing the U.S. This is the highest percentage Gallup has recorded for this concern... 11% specifically citing Trump as the most important problem (5% name the Democrats or liberals and 1% Congress). When asked to name the #1 biggest problem for the country, this is how it came out in the wash:
• The government/Poor leadership- 35%• Immigration- 19%• Healthcare- 6%• Race relations/Racism- 5%• Unifying the country- 4%• Poverty/Hunger/Homelessness- 4%• Environment/Pollution- 3%• Ethics/Moral/Religious/Family decline-3%• Federal budget deficit/Federal debt- 3%• Economy in general- 3%• Unemployment/Jobs- 3%• Lack of respect for each other- 2%• Education- 2%
As we approach the heart of tax season, the mood of the country is getting surly and more surly. It's not what the Trump regime and their lickspittles in Congress were expecting. Reporting for HuffPo, Arthur Delaney wrote that "Republicans boasted all last year that their new tax law boosted paychecks and showered bonuses on several million workers. But now that tax season is upon us, several million Americans are getting a nasty surprise: a bill from the Internal Revenue Service that they never expected."Many people who had less in federal taxes withheld from the paychecks last year are having to pay for it-- and then some-- in surprise demands from the IRS, demands as much as 5 times more than what they thought they had saved because of the Republican Tax Scam! Two reasons: the Republicans purposely limited deductions that would hurt tax payers in blue states like New York, California, New Jersey and Massachusetts, Hawaii, Minnesota, Connecticut, Vermont, Illinois, Oregon-- and is also hitting Iowa and Wisconsin hard. Voters responded last year by defeating 7 of the 14 California members of Congress from California. All but one of New Jersey's red congressional districts flipped. Iowa went from 1 Democrat and 3 Republicans in their delegation to 1 Republican and 3 Democrats. 2 Red seats flipped in Minnesota and in Illinois and 3 flipped in New York. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and Hawaii went into the election already Republican-frei.The average refund is down 8.7% so far this year. "By capping deductions for state and local taxes," explained Delaney, "Republicans knew the tax hikes in their law would be concentrated on states with high taxes-- which tend to be led by Democrats, who use the taxes to provide more social services." Republican voters in Wisconsin and Iowa are "collateral damage." And although Wisconsin is gerrymandered enough to protect Republican legislators, every single Republican running statewide in the Badger state was defeated in 2018.
