If it's awesome, why lie about it?

I have written before about this, but I saw that Matt Yglesias has made the exact same point on Vox with a piece entitled, "If the GOP tax plan is so good, why do they lie so much about it?"

A few key quotes:

There’s a lot that’s controversial about tax policy, after all, but not everything is controversial. It’s obvious that if you cut a tax that’s only paid by married couples who’ve amassed at least $11 million that you are helping rich people. It’s obvious that if you enact a special discount tax rate for people who own LLCs then you are helping Donald Trump, who owns a ton of them. And it’s obvious that if part of your plan is permanent and part of it is temporary, and the part you made temporary is the part that helps the middle class, then helping the middle class wasn’t your priority.

I want to be fair to the conservative point of view here, and I think that this quote is necessary:

The case Republicans are making for their proposal is simple, straightforward, and perfectly reasonable — while Democrats want to have the government give people a lot of new social services, Republicans want to just give them more money instead.

I think that this encapsulates the conservative/Republican argument well. If any readers think it is an unfair characterization, please inform me as to why.

The difference is that while Democratic programs may or may not be a good idea, the bills they write that they say will expand the provision of social services in the United States really do expand the provision of social services.

I think that the above statement is true. Democrats wanted to expand access to healthcare for the lower income population, so they wrote Obamacare. Whether you think that was a good or bad piece of legislation, there is no denying that it expanded Medicaid and attempted to impose uniform rules on health insurance so as to preclude the claims avoidance practices that had/have become so prevalent among health insurers.

If the GOP wants to cut taxes on their wealthy donors, they have that right. They won the 2016 election, by all accounts. With victory comes policy prerogatives. However, it would be refreshing if they would simply own up to what they are doing, instead of continually lying about it.

I may have been born at night, but it wasn't last night.