THE REPUBLICANS’ SCAM—COMING ALL OUR WAY

SNEAKED-IN TWEAKS OF THE DOMESTIC POLICY BILL Republicans recently passed in the House seem insignificant to its more visible consequences (the latter, for example, some 13.7 million people losing health insurance). 

However, I’m all for keeping Republican feet to the fire. And Andrew Duehren and Kate Kelly help in describing “The Little Giveaways Tucked Into the Big Republican Bill,” The New York Times, May 23, 2025.

Here are tidbits gleaned from their article and from “A Complete List of Everything in the Republican Bill, and How Much It Would Cost or Save,” The New York Times, May 23, 2025, together with a not unrelated personal recollection.

Lighter Regulations for A.I. Duehren and Kelly note, “The bill includes substantial benefits for the artificial intelligence industry, home to some of President Trump’s most active supporters, including David Sacks, the venture capitalist who is now the White House’s A.I. czar. It sets aside hundreds of millions of dollars for the use of A.I. in naval shipbuilding, customs and border protection, Social Security and information technology. ”

Even more critical to states-rights advocates (didn’t this usta mean Republicans?), “It also places a 10-year moratorium on the enforcement of state laws involving the regulation of A.I. models and systems.”

Talk about an autocratic power grab.

Legal Protection for Trump Officials. The Times researchers observe, “Republicans tucked a provision into the bill that would limit the power of federal judges to hold people in contempt, potentially shielding Mr. Trump and members of his administration from the consequences of violating court orders.”

U.S. Congress House of Representatives. Image from Britannica.

In particular, they write, “The House-passed bill would block federal judges from enforcing their contempt citations if they had not ordered a bond. It would apply retroactively to ongoing cases in which federal judges are weighing whether to hold Trump administration officials in contempt over deporting migrants.”

This, I note, at a time when so many elements of Trump’s actions are being questioned by the nation’s courts at all levels. It is also one of crucial steps in “Sleepwalking into Autocracy.”

A “Pass-Through” Break for Business Owners. Duehren and Kelly describe, “One of the most expensive provisions in the bill is a deduction to the owners of ‘pass-through’ businesses. These are companies that, rather than paying corporate taxes, pass their profits to their owners, who then pay individual income taxes on the earnings. The vast majority of businesses in the United States are organized this way.”

“This change,” The Times researchers observe, “would come at a cost of nearly $11 billion over a decade.” 

As Senator Everett Dirksen may have said, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” What’s more, you’re talking ordinary taxpayers, not business moguls, that do the paying.

Gym Memberships??  “People with health savings accounts,” Duehren and Kelly recount, “could look forward to a new tax-free use of the funds: gym memberships. The bill would allow people to withdraw $500 each year to pay for fitness expenses, though it includes a long list of rules for what type of physical activity would qualify— no sailing or golf, sorry. Married couples could withdraw $1,000 from the tax-preferred accounts.”

No big deal, eh? The Times researchers note this one “is expected to be a $10 billion change.” 

Recall Dirksen’s dictum: Ca-Ching.

A Tax Break for (Some) in the U.S.V.I. Duehren and Kelly report, “The United States collects a minimum tax on income that companies earn overseas. Since the creation of that tax in 2017, the U.S. Virgin Islands, a territory, has been treated as a foreign location for the purposes of the tax. The legislation would create a new carve-out for income earned on the islands, a generous change that is expected to result in a loss of $883 million in tax revenue over the next decade.”

Magens Bay, St. Thomas. Image by Erika P. Rodriguez for The New York Times. 

Gee, a cost of only a measly $ 0.883 billion. Hardly worth noting….

It does remind me, however, of a not unrelated tale, one concerning tariffs and my living on St. Thomas: In the summer of 1973 I bought a Ford Pinto Wagon in Cleveland, drove it to Miami, and had it shipped over to STT.

A sibling of the family Pinto, even to its spiffy alloy wheels. Image from Barn Finds.

STT had (and retains) an odd customs deal of a fixed 6-percent ad valorem of anything imported. This made/makes European booze, watches, and the like a real bargain. It also surprised the hell out of me when the customs agent identified my Pinto as a product of a Ford Canadian facility and thus liable to the import tax. I recall throwing my motorcycle helmet across the dock.

And not incidentally there’s a relevant press release as recently as April 3, 2025, from U.S.V.I. Governor Albert Bryan Jr.: “Governor Bryan Expresses Concerns Over New Federal Tariffs, Highlights Opportunity for Growth in Local Manufacturing.” 

Indeed, he’s not the only one concerned. ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025