GOP lawmaker admits he wants tax cuts for billionaires to make his donors happy

1436

Republican Rep. Chris Collins said he doesn't care that voters don't like the GOP tax scheme. But he's fighting for it because it's what his donors want.

While many Republican lawmakers are at least pretending their tax scheme is supposed to benefit middle-class voters — it's not — Rep. Chris Collins is taking a different approach.

A week ago, the New York Republican shockingly admitted he does not care that the plan to make the middle class pay for handouts to billionaires and corporations is deeply unpopular with voters. Asked to respond to the bill's extreme unpopularity with voters, he literally responded, "Who cares?"

When it comes to his donors, however, that's another matter.

"My donors are basically saying, 'Get it done or don’t ever call me again,'" Collins said.

In other words, Collins is pushing for something his voters don't want so his rich donors will keep giving him money to stay in office.

It is obvious that the Republican plot to benefit the rich has nothing to do with the majority of Americans they represent. But it's quite a stunning admission to make out loud.

Collins' donors might have shelled out the big bucks to put him in office, but he's supposed to be serving the citizens of his district. The desperate Republican spin to sell this scam to the American public has already received widespread condemnation, with reporters busting GOP lawmakers on live TV for flat-out lying about the plan that would hike taxes on working families to give billions of dollars to booming multinational corporations and the children of extremely wealthy families.

Ivanka Trump and her siblings, for example, stand to pocket $4 billion from the GOP tax scheme by repealing the estate tax — which only the wealthiest .2 percent of estates in America currently pay.

The Republicans' bill is clearly about benefiting the wealthiest Americans at the expense of the rest of the country. They're not pushing for it because it's what their voters want. They're doing it to make their rich benefactors happy. Just as Collins has now admitted.