#when there was large scandle

[tothesolarium]

Gay things are afoot in this atomic “utopia”

[rogerina-is-hotter-than-me]

You’re freezing, love: Prof!Gwil

Synopsis: y/n is neighbors with her professor Mr. Lee, but their relationship is changed when her feelings and actions threaten to be jeprodised the initial unorthodox friendship. Who could stand such close proximity with such a handsome man? Trick question, no one.

Warnings: fluff? Smut? Angst? (I have no idea this is the first time I’ve ever properly submit anything) age gap? Who knows

A/N: hi this is my first submit and the beautiful and extremely generous @rogerina-is-hotter-than-me encouraged me to. She is such an amazing author and my work is inspired by her delicious fics. My obsession. I hope y’all like it :’)

First

“You’re freezing, love.” said the voice next to me. He grasped my hand gently, grazing his thumb softly against it, causing me to let out a sigh and watch my breath turn into a frosty mist. I enjoyed his touch far too much. Breath floated in the air above us for a moment before being lost into the dark sky. The cold hung around as we both reclined on the roof of our shared apartment building. The royal blue colour of the clear sky showed a few pearly stars. The lack of clouds meant there was nothing to keep any warmth around us from floating off to comfort those lucky stars. But, on that roof, I had Gwilym next to my side radiating warmth and comfort while being surrounded by biting air.

We always did this. We would always after an extremely long or hard day sneak away together and rendezvous on the roof where no one else ever came, just us. To rejuvenate, together, secretly. The stars twinkled cheekily at us as if they knew we were out here in company that wasn’t quite allowed. Gwil leant against the strong concrete banister that encircled the roof, with his arms crossed over his chest to maintain body temperature and his face turned up to gaze above us. His throat exposed to the cold without a scarf as he tilted his head. I angled my body ever closer, maybe not even consciously so our sides were pressed together, shoulder to shoulder and leg to leg. The surprising warmth that radiated off him was enough for me to use an excuse to keep pushing my luck. I linked my arm through his and turned so I could face him and didn’t think twice before pressing my rosed lips to the soft but scratchy skin under his jaw.

I knew I shouldn’t have kissed him, but the pull I had toward him was not singularly admiration, sexual or emotional any more, but the simplest physical comfort of warmth against the freezing air was enough to encourage the action. It felt right.

The plume of cold breath that escaped his lips stopped as soon as my mouth connected with his skin. The numbed surface was shocked by the gentle and hot touch of an exhaled breath fanning over his throat and warm soft lips. On the roof, his nose turned pink from the cold, his cheeks shared the colour too as he looked at me. My eyes still focused adoringly on his Adam’s apple before traveling up to his lips to stare into his unknowing eyes. Their blue as rich as the colour above them. I didn’t know if he was going to say something, perhaps “What was that?” Or even worse, tell me off and say “That is inappropriate miss y/n, I understand that our friendship is unorthodox due to our schooling situation, but there is no reason to ruin that friendship on the whims of a fleeting impulse.”

I think I would have cried if he had done that. I felt like through my actions I had put my young heart in his strong hands and was just hoping he didn’t drop it in disgust or throw it off the side of the tall building to splatter on the road.

The pale glow from under the door to the roof was all that illuminated the space around us, apart from the interested stars and the round moon. But I didn’t need light to know his face, I was familiar with the hard line of his nose and his rounded glasses that framed his eyes. They always looked at me with kindness and interest. Calculative eyes. The angular shape of his cheek bones and his knitted brow that slowly unknotted with the more time we stayed on that roof. His mouth opened slightly as if he didn’t know what to say, and I couldn’t help my eyes flicking back to them longingly. I had no idea what he was going to do, I think a storm of mixed feelings - suppression and nature raged behind his beautiful eyes. I wished I could kiss them too. Standing so close always made me feel dead to the world, everything apart from him.

He watched me, like he usually did in our long secluded talks on the roof. Meeting up there most nights after he had finished his day of lecturing know-it-all literature students and mine of listening to pretentious professors telling me how to communicate through expressive forms. We found solace on that roof, it was always comfortable up there in his company.

The dynamic of our relationship was natural up there. But I think we both knew the strain that was felt in the class room. Scandles happened all the time in the media. ‘Inappropriate relations’ they were deemed in the headlines. I respected Gwil too much to put him in any jeopardy by acting too friendly with him in our lectures so no one would get chins wagging and throw blame that wasn’t deserved. I had been good. We had been good. We would talk for hours, about life, and school and people and experiences. In the class he spoke with conviction and strength. He was important and brilliant and we could all bask in his knowledge and gain from it. The power role was his in that situation. Not to be trifled with. Something about watching his confidence and hand gestures. His arse and respectable dress. When I had him alone i had to keep a tight grip on myself, though I think we both slipped at times. A blarze hand on the thigh or a too long lingering touch to the back. Only innocent thing. But when the slightest touch was enough to set me off. God, once we were discussing a film that I had demanded him to watch and as I was enthusiastically describing the plot his eyes were watching me without registering my words. When I caught him I called him out on it and laughed, scolding him.

“If I did that in one of your lectures you’d fuck me up! I’d be in so much trouble. Ah, the audacity you have!” I was kidding and my tone was light hearted as I teased his disinterest but my breath caught in my chest as he continued to just look at me. His hand lifted slowly as if he was afraid to scare off a wild animal and place it on my cheek. I didn’t dare move. My heart hurt from just how hard it was beating in my chest. His thumb gently glided across my cheek bone and he pursed his lips. His breath blew out over my face and as unexpectedly as it had come, he dropped his hand.

“Eyelash.” He offered as explanation for his actions. Then went back to staring across the other roofs of the buildings in the distance. “You can continue, y/n. I promise I’m listening.”

I was intoxicated.

He used to knock on our shared wall and we’d both meet in between our front doors and walk up together. We looked just like two neighbors spending time together, friends. Not professor and student. Not a scandal.

He listened when I talked, I laughed when he joked and comforted him when he needed it. I knew his heart better than my own from all our conversations on that roof.

But just after I let myself indulge in a feeling that made me drunk with pleasure he looked at me, like he was trying to figure me out. I wasn’t hiding anything. He turned to me, the collar of his large jacket up to keep back the cold, his familiar face only centimeters away and my body hyper aware in anticipation of his reaction. I felt his body move too, so he was facing me. I lost all sense of the world when he silently, eye contact never wavering, gently slid his large cold hand under my coat to sit pressed against the fabric of my dress. My thick sock covered toes curled in my shoes.

I couldn’t speak as his eyes followed the path his thumb took on his other hand as he raised it to cup the side of my neck and traced a line from my chin across my jaw, back up across my cheek to rest his coolly on my bottom lip.

Under his strong look, his attentive eye and the fact that although his touch was reserved it was still a touch with intent. I grew back my confidence that I usually had in his presence and my tongue darted out between my parted lips to lick his thumb. I felt his pressure on my back pull me closer so I was flush against him.

He exhaled deeply as he watch me do that, his breath on my face made my eyes close and he lowered his lips to meet mine. He kissed me so softly that I couldn’t think, holding my face in his cool hands, leaning over me. When I felt him start to pull away my reflexes acted without thought and one hand shot up to hold fast to his brown hair and pull him back to me. I wanted more. I had tasted him now and nothing had ever been sweeter.

His low voice chuckled and I felt it rumble through my chest when my spare hand snaked down to his lean waist, hooking my finger through the back belt loop of his trousers and pull him closer, desperate for a tighter proximity.

One of his thighs slipped in between mine and I opened my mouth to him, infatuated with his taste.

In any other situation I would have sold my kidney to know what he was thinking in that exact moment - to be fair I didn’t even know what I was thinking. All that worry in class about even being seen as too friendly and now I was weak kneed and helplessly trying to stop myself grinding on his strong thigh. All I knew was just how badly I wanted him. Fuck consequences. I had never allowed myself to act explicitly on my feelings. Tirelessly trying to crush my tiny flirting actions that come naturally when you’re attracted to someone. In conversation licking my lips when I noticed him looking, or hand on the bicep, fleeting and teasing mention of his sweet arse, standing close to him, undressing him with my eyes when he wasn’t looking in class. The only time I had ever acted on the impulses I couldn’t control was when there were so overwhelming my only hope was to suppress them until I found myself alone and in the dark with my thoughts that had turned to Gwil and my hand traveled down between my pressed together thighs.

I didn’t need to know what he was thinking - he was showing me. Maybe he had always felt the same way. He dipped his head and his arms pulled around me, drawing me in closer if possible. I sucked his bottom lip and pulled it into my mouth. God he tasted so good. His hand gripped the back of my head and I felt his hot tongue slide into my mouth. Again I sucked this time on what he was giving me and I felt in his surprise his leg push further in between my own. Finally some friction! I definitely wasn’t feeling cold anymore.

I believe if anyone found themselves in this situation like I did, it’s not hard to imagine the acceleration of the moment. From a simple little kiss that was not allowed, it opened the floodgates to wild and desperate actions of two people finally giving in to what they wanted but thought they couldn’t have.

He pulled my hair and bit my dark lips and I gripped the back of his neck and threw an arm to drag him impossibly closer over his broad shoulders. His stubble scratched my soft cheeks but that abrasion pushed me harder - I was finally feeling something that I had been secretly longing for since I first met him. In his apartment over blaringly loud and malfunctioning music in sweat pants and worn jumper. And in the open lecture hall the next day watching him passionately stride across the floor, glasses slipping down his nose with his lean body in a crisp and respectable button up shirt and trousers that captured the curve of his arse in a not very respectable way. It made me curse under my breath and boil with frustration noticing all the other girls pineing over him too. I daydreamed about marking him with hickies visible even above his collar to keep those girls off him. I haplessly imagined him becoming me innocently over to his desk at the front of class and whispering the dirtiest things into his ear or licking his ear lobe delicately to make him shiver. I’d blush when he’d compliment me on my diligence in class in his friendly manner knowing full well within my heart there was little being absorbed into my brain apart from imprinting into my memory the image of his crotch with his pants taunt over hard thighs and the swell agains the seam of his cock when he sat. I would always jolt and scold myself for my behaviour since that is not just friends behaviour.

Notable, one time when sitting on the front of his desk I choked when he absently rubbed his thighs as he spoke and slapped them before getting up to keep moving. I kept scribbling a large hand spanking an arse hard on the glossy top of the desk with a pencil before freaking out when the girl sitting next to me glanced over. Rubbing it off in a hurry and burning hot in the face.

Those secret glances he seldom threw at me when he couldn’t stop himself I held thightly onto, though even more importantly the conversation and ciggarettes shared on the private roof.

He picked me up and dropped my arse on the concrete rail, my leg spread to accomodate for him to position between them. My dress rode up to my knees and he pushed it further, his cold hands on my hot thighs made noises escape me. I locked my ankles behind him and pulling him closer again. His grip squeezed my thighs. I couldn’t get close enough and I thought I might die if I didn’t.

So I bit him. And he froze. Our bodies were still haphazardly entwined together, neither one of us wanting to create distance from the other. His lips left mine and I almost whined at its loss. He only pulled back far enough so I could see his face. I blushed and he devilishly grinned me, his beautiful teeth framed by his kissed lips. Lips kissed - by me.

“Y/n … did you just bite me?” He asked, still grinning. An eyebrow arched, raised like in class when a shit student gives him a smart-arse answer. That rise of the eye brown usually was followed by Sir in academic talk tearing that student a new one and outsmarting the smart-arse to put him back in his place. It alway got me flustered when I witnessed it, like a show of mental power that for some reason got me wet. That raised eyebrow meant trouble, but this was the trouble I wanted to be in.

I uncoiled my arms and gently removed his glasses, tucking them into my pocket before turning to him. I leant in again so my lips only just grazed his and smiled myself.

“Maybe..” I teased. I gently brushing my lip against his. His thumb pressed at the base of the hollow of my throat in response. Teetering there, on the edge of a building with this man pressed between my legs, one hand close to my throat and the other up my dress - I was so vulnerable to him, and it excited me.

“Gwil - god, Gwil…” I mumbled. My eyes closed under his attentive watch. I knew he was going to do something, there was no way I was imagining what was happening on this rooftop, the anticipation was killing me.

“You have absolutely no idea how bad I wanted this, Sir.” I admitted, letting my head drop back to expose more of my neck to him which he lazily and purposely slowly kissed. Far too delicate for what I wanted - and I needed. He was enjoying toying with me, playing with me and seeing my reaction to his blazing touch.

He chuckled, he nose dragging from my collar bone up to my ear lobe. I was coming apart from his teasing - I could feel him smiling when I quivered and a gasp escaped my stretched throat.

“This is the type of stuff I think about when I’m alone -“ I started again, my mind to hazy with over situation to grasp what I was confessing.

“Alone?…” he asked and stopped his agonising advances. “You mean you really are…” he was unable to get the words out. He hand on my thigh squeezed hard, his hand pushed up so his thumb was enveloped in my thighbrow crease and his fingers splayed over as much of my arse has he could reach. The tips of his fingers digging in. He breathed deeply and pushed himself against me harder.

“When I’m in bed and I think of you, I don’t have any choice do I? How could I possibly fall asleep with the thought of you like this on me. Or in me… me on you or spread across your desk or table and I … well, I have to release that tension some how.”

It was my turn to play with him now, so I let him watch me draw a line from my chin down my breast bone, past my navel to settle between my legs. His eyes feasted on me. His chest heaving.

“So…” I said, still holding his undivided attention, “I play these little situation in my head, most of the time I can’t even get to the end because pretending my hand is your tongue is just too much for me sometimes.” He licked his lips and watched my fingers as they pressed practiced against the burning nerves and the slow circular motion I drew across them.

His jaw tensed “I know what you’re doing, miss.” He informed me. I fluttered my eyelashes and blew out a soft ‘O’ from between my parted lips, rolling my head back and pretending to ignore him.

He roughly grabbed my wrist, stopping my movements. He brought my hand up to his mouth and kissed the tips of my fingers.

The intensity of his gaze contrasting with the softness of his actions further heated me up.

Fuck - if he wanted to throw me onto the floor and pound me into the cold ground, the only thing I could do would be thank him. That thought made me smile so I flashed my pearly teeth at him and leant forward to drag them across his ear lobe.

“You are so damn naughty, you know that?” I felt his fingers catch the edge of my underwear. He tugged just ever so slightly.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to want to screw your brains out, practically all the time? You standing too close to me in class or when I catch you giving me one of those looks - god. How am I meant to behave and not blow a circuit?”

His grip was so strong I thought I was going to defiantly bruise. My breath quickened at the thought of him leaving marks on me.

“How am I able to do all these terrible things I want to do to you and not wreck this?” He continued.

“Y/n, what we have now? It’s driving me up the wall. I want to pin you down and make you cum on my tongue and I think about you riding my cock whenever I hear you making those dirty, dirty moans through the walls. I’m conflicted all the fucking time, it’s just a balancing act. I can’t take that pressure anymore. Fuck it. Let me fall.”

I almost ripped my dress off over my head when I heard him say that but his hold on me wouldn’t let me move an inch away. Both his hands on my lower back pulled my against him, I felt his hard outline through his pants press against my heat.

All I could say was “Oh-” hopelessly lost in the feeling of him where I wanted him so badly. I shifted myself on the dangerous edge to allow me to grind against him. Hard. His hand fisted in my hair as he growled. I couldn’t believe I had ever been cold from the intense and feverish heat that the friction did to me - or the sound of the carnal urge vibrating out of Gwil.

Only three layers of clothing between us. But hey, who was counting?

Must have been reading my mind because he scooped me up and placed me on the ground so he was back looming over me with his towering and intimidating height. He walked serged forwards and I stumbled back on wobbly legs until my back hit the door to the staircase back down to the apartments.

I gulped.

His eye glinted. His whole body pressed against mine, he was all I could see and feel. Hands either side of my head, leaving me no where to look but into his blazing stare. There was nothing else in my world but him.

I grabbed his loosened tie and pulled him down to my eye level.

“I honestly think I may die, Sir, if you leave me like this a second longer.” I confessed my need for him. My body was pumping with the sweetest pain of utter desperation and anticipation. For a second I thought of him pushing into me, hot, hard and throbbing. I wanted to be a complete mess underneath him. On top of him. In front of him. I wanted him to bruise me. Feel like cock slid through my slick folds and twice inside me.

His voice was so deep and he licked the lips of his cunning smile.

“You have nothing to worry about, miss y/n… I promise I will -”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence because I wasn’t lying. I seriously thought I may die if I didn’t get more of him. All of him.

He blindly pushed the door behind me open and we stumbled into the corridor.

[taylorscottbarnett]

First: Go to hell you bourgeois. Sorry I get a little annoyed at the same tired advice from rich people that never look at their situation or millennials with any context and seem to think they have a magic bullet that will fix everything stemming from their knowledge at their brilliant success while never recognizing the heaping amounts of luck and privilege not granted to most peasants -- err, I mean common folk, ummmm, people.

Youe highnesses, may I present a rebuttle of your vastly oversimplified idealistic veiw of exactly what you did right and what millenials are just too stupid to realize?

Coffee: Let's go with the average of $92 a month. That's $3.06 a day.

Shoes: First, you realize that when it comes to dress shoes certain things have to match right? But I digress, the article states the average person owns 12 pairs. Your claim that women may own more shoes -- have you considered that they have to match what the person wears? You go to work in shoes that don't match the rest of your outfit and see the looks you get.

Besides that however, do you realize people generally don't buy 12 shoes a year every year? They might OWN 12 pairs, but it's not a continuous recurring cost every single year.

I buy tennis shoes usually two pairs at a time. I have three pairs of "dress" shoes, one black, one brown, one of those a recent purchase, about a year old. The other is oh, three years old when I was going too see Wicked and realized I didn't actually own any dress shoes. Lastly one pair of marching band shoes I've owned for, oh, 16 years, mostly for things needing slightly better shoes than sneakers, but not that dressed up.

In addition, I have a two pairs of running shoes, and three pairs of tennis shoes. I also own a pair of hiking boots that are nearly a decade old, and a four year old pair of snow boots.

Know why? Those tennis shoes I bought on sale, and if I alternate shoes by week they don't wear out as fast, meaning I dont have to buy shoes again when they might not be discounted.

Jeans: for years I only owned, oh, three pairs of jeans. I spent the last two years adding more to my wardrobe. I've maybe 8 pairs of jeans, ranging from work clothing, to casual. I've 8 pairs of pants from Swiss Tech I picked up over the course of a year when they went on sale. They tend to make up a large portion of what I wear to class. Two pairs of dress pants. Some of those are 6 years old. Some are 1. Thing is, when you can alternate clothing, you can put off doing laundry until you have a full load. Saving you money in the long run in terms of detergent, water, electricity, and wear and tear on your clothes from use/washing -- meaning you don't have to replace them for ages. I'll wear those clothing for an average of about 8-10 years each. A pair of my black jeans are nearly a decade old and apart from a rip at the knee when I fell off a stage and busted by knee last year they are in great shape. Screw you.

Your seven percent a year profit from investing is screwy as hell you know that? That's an average over decades. Between 1926 and 2014, returns were in that “average” band of 8% to 12% only six times. The rest of the time they were much lower or much higher. It also doesn't account for luck. Those gains only materialized if you happen to have owned stocks on the best performing days.

According to JP Morgan if you missed the best ten days from Jan. 01, 1999 to Dec. 31, 2018, your overall return of 7% becomes oh, about 3.5%. Average inflation for that time period was 2.18% total accumulative inflation was 50.72%

Take the average inflation away from the overall return, and if you missed just the 10 best days of the market over a 20 year period (or you know, for my generation happened to be like 10 at the start of 1999) your return is a paltry little over 1%.

It takes money to invest and have a decent, diversified portfolio, assuming you invest only in mutual funds so you dont have to buy one share of Amazon at oh nearly $2,000, even if you are only investing via an app like Acorns.

And about that coffee: I'm a barista. I spent 4 years saving my tips and putting them towards 15k in student loans at 7% interest. Along with a $100 month payment. I also got lucky, I helped take care of my COPD stricken aunt. I lived rent free, and could afford to put an extremely large amount of my income towards those debts. I also would turn around and put the tax deduction savings from the interest payments towards paying off debt.

My customers went a long way towards me paying off my loans. A married couple for example tipped me a dollar each. They got a large coffee each. That's $6 total from their family budget. It was also about $520 in tips to me a year. Did that $6/day mean a lot to them? Probably not. Did the coffee before work? Definitely. Did the $520 a year mean a lot to me? Absolutely.

Acorns lists Americans spending an average of $92/month on coffee. $3 a day. Does it mean a lot to them? The cost probably not. Does the experience enrich their soul? Help them survive at work? Keep them from quiting or setting fire to their boss? Absolutely. Does this save them money in the long run? Probably.

So maybe the next time you are giving advice, consider that not everyone happend to found a learning software company in the late 80's that got lucky and was sold to Mattel making you multimillionaire. Or happened to be sent to an expensive boarding school for your education. (While I don't know what it cost your parents, it's current tuition is listed as $53,000 /year).

Or attended a school that only cost only about $2,500 a year, (that's $15,808.15 in today's dollars) as opposed to the $52k it is today.

Then again ecconomic Conservatives have a big tendency towards blowing their successes out of proportion while minimizing failures. (After all, you claimed Donald Trump was "Smart as a fox" pretty much even a glance at his string of lies, deceit, scandles, shady dealings, multiple business failures, twitter feed, or his extremely obvious incompetence in deal making or negotiation with Republicans or Democrats in Congress, never mind other political scandals since taking office, would easily confirm Trump is a trust-fund baby, carnival barker, who's much better at lying, cheating, and screwing over people than actually being a businessman.)

[faroutspaceman-blog]

My weekend so far. . 1/2 -1/4/19

My weekend starts off on Wednesday because quite frankly I can't remember what I did Monday or Tuesday. Those days are now non-existent. Forever lost in the trash bin of my deep ugly brain. Here I am laying on my bed, bored out of my fucking mind. I strum a lil guitar, sing a little, but put it back away because I realize I'm still as shit at guitar no less than I was 5 minutes before i picked it up. Now the only logical thing to do is sit and stare at my ceiling loudly moaning irritated grunts of boredom at my innocent ceiling. I get up and decide to make the most extravagant fucking sandwich. Well it was subpar, I usually put lettuce on it but we were out so I settled for a greenless burger. Whatever. I go to sit back on my bed and enjoy my sandwich, when I get a call. I fucking shoot up and tap that answer call like I just felt a rush of heroin in my blood. Thank the fucking lord. My brain almost had an aneurysm from how bored I was. My friend Vanessa and her Boyfriend (who happens to be my ex lover, love that..fuck) asks me if I wanna hang.

Me: "why yes I do want to chill, but if I'm still eating my sandwich by the time you pull up, your ass is waiting at the driveway."

Them: "we have Goldfish and Arnold Palmer's tea"

Me *while stuffing the whole sandwich in my mouth* : SAY NO MAS IM READY

I get on my new Blockbuster hoodie I bought the day before (yes from the world's only Blockbuster left in my Local Bend, Oregon.) And some jeans I found on the floor. I grabbed my keys and my bag and phone. Hiked up my driveway (which let me tell ya was a whole fucking mission in itself. ) Hall ass down my street I see Vanessa's car and they're driving like maniacs down my dirt road so I obviously take advantage of the situation and throw a peace sign into the air and lay in front of her car ready for my death. She stops and I hop in and am greeted with both my promised food items. I was very happy. We drive to a friend's house about a few miles from my house because we need to refill our pods with juice because ya know.. gotta get that nicotine rush. We had 8 full pods to last us the day. (They did not last for 3 people.)

After we fill our pods, we head down to Redmond, Oregon to the local 24 great Walmart to do what ever because we were bored, I decided to challenge my friends to a game of Hide n seek, and I was the only one who hid because they were being lame. I won it took them 40mins to find me. I was in the office supply Ile. After we went to Walmart, we went to Fred Meyers. stole their WiFi and lounged on their couches until it closed. Nothing special pretty boring.

Then Johnny, Vanessa's Boyfriend, gets the bright idea to swing by his house to see if his parents have packed up to leave to Idaho. If they are gone, Johnny plans to break into his own house ( I say break In because he just got kicked out.. again for refusing to be Mormon and for smoking and going against his parents) They are not gone yet so we decide to go to our chill spot which is way up on this hill where you can see all of Redmond. We talk, watch vines, etc.

Anyway I decide to go outside and look around, as I'm looking around Vanessa joins me. We are across from the car and we look around and I find this underwire leopard print bra a smashed TV and a lone boot. So I was already like "what the actual fuck happened here?"

I still forward towards the TV and there I see it, an empty grave, it looks fresh. I turn to Vanessa and she's already booked it back to the Car with me right behind her. We lock the doors and turn on Nextflix (we were watching Chappie).

Halfway through the movie, this man in a green Subaru pulls up next to our car. This is already fuckin weird because only few know about this road.he parks his car a lil ways from ours, cuts off his lights and just idles. At first were cautious but he just seemed to be doing the same we were, so our fear eventually subsided. We finished our movie, the car was still parked, and we pull out to check to see if Hunters parents had left. As we were pulling away we saw that the man had a blond haired woman in her car, but not to be rude she looked like a hooker. He was probably waiting for us to leave and we accidentally rang this man's bill up 200 an hour. Oops.

We checked Johnnys house. They're still there. Guess we're sleeping in the car tonight. We decide to try and find some food, we pull into Domino's and order a large pizza. As we're waiting for pizza, I joke able how I've cut my Cornea in the most retarted way to Vanessa's boyfriend. I move my hands to get the hair out of my face, and the string to my hoodie cuts my eye. At first I thought there was just something in my eye so I start rubbing it. It really fucking hurts. I close my eyes and black thinking it will go away but it never does. We drive back to the chill spot and on the way back, we see that green Subaru on the main Street leaving from our spot,but I saw no girl this time. Who knows we were gone a long fucking time. Must have dropped her off a few ways back. We get back in on the hill I manage my eye to keep the excess light out of it and my friends play Madea boo 2 on next. When the movie ends we decide to just go to sleep on the hill. I'm a little pissed at this point because I just wanted to chill and not murder my eyeball.

We put her back seat down and I'm on the far edge in the backseat wishing I never came because maybe if I stayed home this wouldn't of happened. Then there's a knock on the window. Not like an accidental hit it was clearly a knock. I dont say anything, it isn't acknowledged between any of us. I try and sleep and Johnny is freaking out

"dude are you fucking hearing this. It sounds like footsteps and dragging outside."

I don't hear shit so Ignore it. Then Vanessa starts hearing it. And I know she doesn't lie so I'm flipping my shit at this point. Vanessa jumps into front seat and She whips her car off the hill so fast we was cooking.

We end up driving back to Walmart to get me eyedrops in hope it'll make it better. As Vanessa is running in to get eyedrops, this girl stops us to ask if she can use her phone because her friends ditched her at Walmart ( what fuckin assholes. ) She waits away from our car for her friend, and she quickly comes back telling us that a man asked if she wanted a ride home and a smoke.we told her to wait with us because I was suspicious that it was the man in the green Subaru.

Vanessa's comes back with the eyedrops and we leave the parking lot without the girl. I strangely don't remember saying goodbye to her but we did apparently? We park in the neighborhood and get back into the backseat of the car. We play never have I ever until 4 am. We fall asleep and wake up at 6:30 am. I'm still asleep I. The back seat when I hear Johnny's happy that his parents are gone, he tries to look for ways back into his house but it's a no bueno. They drives to lowes while I pretend to be asleep on the backseat of the car. All I heard was lockpick and Saw and I already knew someshit was about to happen.

They park back at Johnny's house and I stay in the car. About 10 minute later Johnny comes back In the car and yells "we got it". Sweet so the lock picked worked? Nope they sawed a hole in the backdoor. He is for sure going back to jail after this. Vanessa guides me inside because I'm blind and can't see. We sit on the couch i call an eye doctor in bend and make an appointment for 4pm, for Johnny's uncle that happens to coincidentally be an eye doctor. He lives a block away from Johnny. Around 12 pm. We leave Johnny's house and go look for other things to do I. The area.

We pull into this Freshman's driveway,(Tom) and lets get this straight, Tom is fucking annoying and no one likes him because he is a fein for pods and nicotine, that and he thinks he's tough shit. Proud why he got excelled. We've had to help him with every fight he's been in. Trash.

We chill at his house for a while, and eventually his step mom walks in and kicks us out "get out of my house, I don't like kids having sex on my couch"

Honestly we just came over to steal his food. His step mom is such a joke. She has the biggest crush on our friend Jason. We could honestly break apart that whole marriage and cause such a scandle with that information. Anyway it's about 2pm now, my appointment is in two hours. We drive to the park and wait.

5 minutes later Tom skates to us on his long board, asks if he can hang and throws his board I the trunk.

Fuck. Just when I thought I was gonna get away from this kid. We drive by away from the park and go towards bend for my appointment. The whole car ride he blows his burnt vape in my fave and it smells like ass. I asked him to stop. He didn't. We stop at the grocery, I stay in the car, while Tom takes a smoke break out the car while Johnny and Vanessa shop. 3 minutes pass and he asks if I want a smoke.

"no that shits nasty"

"come-on. They don't even taste like stogies. They smell soo good*

He shoves the pack of cigs in my face and I was getting pissed. The only way to get rid of his prized cigs is to threaten his prized cigs.

"if you don't get that shit out of my face rn, I swear I'll rip them all up then spit on them"

"I'll beat ur ass if you do"

I just smirked at him as he took his cigs back and closed the door.

It's about 3:45 and we head to my appointment. Vanessa directs me to the office. And it's so bright in there, I instantly start crying which makes my eyes hurt even more. I honestly have never wanted to just instantly die in a moment than now. I just want to stop hurting. I'm finally able to open my eyes and the office by is actually very nice. I fill out the paperwork and the doctor sees me right away.

I try and play it smooth, talking about how broke I am, and how much I love Jonny so he'll give me a discount be because I don't have health Insurance.

Then he says "be in remember you, we played ping pong at Johnny's house during their Mormon party."

I had flashbacks to the Mormon party, and how we won the game, how I almost fucked Johnny in his car afterwards on the way back home. But it felt wrong because Vanessa was there. Then I remembered the hole in the back door.

"yeah that was really fun. I remember we won."

He didn't day anything he just put numbing drops In My eyes and this yellow dye. He looked at my eyes and said

"you have a 3 millimeter cut on your eye. You really did some damage"

"dammit"

He writes my prescription and im ngl I almost booked it out the door. But I waited instead. He me 120 for a 2 minute visit. Asshole. After I talked so nicely with him.

Me and Vanessa went back outside but the car was gone, so was Tom and Johnny.

We called them, they're a block or two away. We waited and waited, and entertained ourselves by kicking rocks to each other that made the best ear tingling noise you could imagine.

A couple minutes later the car pulled up and this girl other girl was in the car. Wtf man I just want to go home. As soon as we get into the car everyone is aguing about where we're going and Johnny wants to Trade My weed for pods.that he didn't even ask me if he could be trade. Which pissed me off A SHIT TON. johnny, Tom and this dumb dumb bitch kept arguing about pods and juuls. I realized how absolutely fucking retarted it is and how I never want to sound like that. I save all my shit to Johnny and just said " I quit" . We drove into Safeway gave them my perscription. Told us to come back in 20 minutes. Dropped dumb bitch off at her friends no house. Johnny traded my Weed for pods. And Tom proceeded to cuss out girl we traded with calling her names like fat ass, which I did not approve of. Tom commented on something and I swear I almost killed a kid in front of my friends. Tom was lucky that night. I would have strangled him if it wasn't for my eye.

We go back to Safeway and they try and charge me $47 for a $4 perscription. Fuck that. We transfer it to Walmart. We drive home, I'm the first to get dropped off. Thank fucking god.

My mom comes into my room, and hugs me and just listens to me sleepily jabber about anything.

Last time I'll ever sacrifice my subpar sandwich for goldfish and Arnold Palmer's.

Never again

[alexbkrieger13]

That’s interesting about the Irish women too! It’s cool that it’s finally allowed to say now that they were a couple. Ireland is a very religious country right? Catolic? The way you’ve talked about religious schools for example and girls and boys schools I can imagine it’s quite different from Sweden in that way. Is gay marriage legal? Just wondering def not judging.

Yea Catholic country. Definitely not a Catholic as say 20+ years ago (bunch of scandles and formal separation of church and state) but I say a large majority of school are under umbrellas of Catholic organisations. Definitely at the primary level and really any school build before 1996 will be heavily influenced by Catholic teachings. Both my schools for all girls and very Catholic (aka crazy).

Yea we have gay marriage since 2015. 1st country to legalise it by popular vote. Still a load of issues around gay adoption and stuff cause of Catholic lobby groups and the banning of conversion therapy has been resisted for age. Definitely worse if your trans (from what ive seen from trans people in my life) cause the waiting list to see the 1 gender specialist in Ireland (who dose it 1 day a week) got lost when our health system was hacked last year

[brilliantorinsane]

The Speckled Band on Stage:      Yep, Still Gay

Note: I tagged those who reblogged the first part of this series. Please let me know if you would prefer not to be tagged in future posts.

This is the second installment in my series on obscure Sherlock Holmes film adaptations and their depiction of Holmes and Watson both individually and in relation to each other. (For a discussion of the 1921-23 silent films starring Eille Norwood, which appears to have been Doyle’s favorite adaptation, see here.)

I really didn’t mean to write a post about this one, seeing as it doesn’t strictly fit the theme of this series. It is a play, not a film, and it is only sort of an adaptation—although a retelling of The Speckled Band, it is written by Doyle himself. But while researching a very gay and very terrible 1931 film, I discovered that it was loosely adapted from this play. Naturally I read it as part of my research, telling myself that I wouldn’t get sidetracked writing a post about it. The failure of my self-control now lays before you.

In my defense, this play really is … well it really is Something. All sorts of wonderful and all sorts of tragic. If you’d prefer to read it for yourself before encountering the spoilers in this post, hop on over here and scroll to the second half of the webpage. And if you’ve got your subtext glasses so much as perched lightly on the end of your nose, be ready to be sent reeling by what you find.

(Spoilers below the cut)

Production and Reception                                  

Doyle’s decision to adapt The Speckled Band for the stage was rather spur-of-the-moment. He had leased a theater for six months in order to showcase The House of Temperley, an adaptation of his novel Rodney Stone, but the play was largely unsuccessful (x, x). Threatened with considerable financial loss, Doyle set to work and within a week had written The Speckled Band. Despite its rushed composition the play was decidedly successful, and Doyle seems to have been quite pleased with it (x).

The play alters the original short story considerably. Some changes are so inconsequential as to be puzzling—the villain’s name is changed from Roylott to Rylott, the names of the stepdaughters are switched, etc—but other alterations are structural and make a significant difference. In particular, instead of following Watson’s pov, the audience’s perspective revolves primarily around the Rylott house. The scenes introducing Holmes and Watson are also considerably altered and expanded for potentially unfamiliar audiences, and a good deal more shouting and action is introduced throughout. 

Oh, and Watson is engaged to Mary Morstan. Yeah. More on that later.

I have two complaints: First there is an uncomfortable dash of orientalism (i.e., western depictions of the east which cast it as mysterious, dangerous, and Other, and which played a largely unintentional but nonetheless significant role in justifying British imperialism), which is present in the original story but rather more prevalent in the stage play. Second, the female protagonist, although commendably brave, loses what little agency she had in the original story. But aside from these elements, I loved this play. The pacing is good and kept me engaged even when neither Sherlock or Watson are present, Dr. Rylott is genuinely frightening and I was really rather tense at times despite knowing the ending, and the occasional humor is on point—I actually laughed aloud once or twice. Further, ACD’s allegiance with the oppressed is out in full force, and there’s some genuinely touching commentary on the debilitating effects of abuse. And then, of course, there is Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson …

Sherlock Holmes on Stage                                      

Guys. This is, pure and undiluted, Sherlock Holmes at his best. If you ever start to fear that Sherlock really might be the cold and detached reasoning machine some folk have fixated on, just read the way Arthur Conan Doyle writes him in this play. You will never doubt again that he is anything besides a snarky ahead-of-his-time genius with a heart of literal gay gold. We’ll get to the ‘gay’ part in later section, so we’ll set aside his interactions with Watson for the moment. There is plenty else to discuss.

You see, this Holmes does spout a variation of that much abused line from A Scandal in Belgravia, saying: “[love] would disturb my reason, unbalance my faculties. Love is like a flaw in the crystal, sand in the clockwork, iron near the magnet.” I understand that the statement, here and in Scandle, refers specifically to romantic love. Yet I cannot think it’s an accident that nearly the very next moment Holmes is flatly refusing to find the wife of a clearly abusive husband, asking only enough questions to ensure that she has found a safe refuge, even though the law is on the husband’s side and the man offers a whopping fee of 500 pounds. As if Doyle wants to drive home that Holmes accepts cases purely on the basis of empathy for the downtrodden and not finances, Holmes then remarks: “I’m afraid I shall never be a rich man, Watson.” Added to this, the manner in which he listens to, comforts, and puts himself in danger for Roylott’s step-daughter Enid is genuinely touching. As many of us have asserted for years, Sherlock Holmes is the champion of justice, ally of the oppressed, and altogether a beautiful smol man. ‘Love is a flaw in the crystal,’ indeed.

There is also a pleasing dash of Holmes the psychologist. It appears most obviously in an early analysis of Dr. Roylott, but most touchingly toward Rylott’s mercilessly abused servant Rodgers. The man is essentially good-hearted but entirely incapacitated by fear of his master, and this leads to his betraying Enid’s attempts to contact Sherlock. It was obviously a shitty move, but Holmes, who earlier expressed understanding of the thoroughgoing damage caused by the man’s long, forced dependence on a maniac for his basic needs, responds compassionately: “He is not to be blamed. His master controls him.”

Added to this we have Holmes in disguises, bamf!Holmes, Holmes calling people idiots and taking far too much delight in dancing circles around them, and of course utterly brilliant Holmes (though that’s a given), so it seems almost an embarrassment of riches that we also get peak sassy Holmes. He makes a number of delightful appearances, although my favorite is the following, which occurs after he has agreed to protect Enid from Rylott:

RYLOTT: What I ask you to do — what I order you to do is to leave my affairs alone. Alone, sir — do you hear me? HOLMES: You are perfectly audible.

As utterly delightful as all of this is, Holmes’s darker side is not entirely absent, at least in his personal habits—the cocaine does make its appearance. But more on that later.

John Watson on Stage                                             

To be honest, I found myself rather anxious about how Doyle would depict Watson. We fans have been in the habit of discovering Watson between the lines of the cannon stories—as the man is far more interested in talking about Holmes than himself, it takes a bit of digging to discover Watson’s outstanding qualities. But what if the Watson we love so dearly is our own invention, and Doyle himself was simply uninterested in the man except as a conduit to portraying Holmes?

I really shouldn’t have worried.

It is true that Watson rather disappears into the background once Holmes is working. But that is not to say he becomes at all useless. In fact, the Watson in this play is quite simply our Watson—kind, steady, intelligent, dangerous, and with something of a temper hidden beneath the steady veneer.

In the play, Watson is the doctor who examines the body of the first murdered sister (who is here called Violet) two years before Holmes becomes involved in protecting the remaining sister, Enid. Watson, bright fellow that he is, clearly suspects that something is off. Ultimately there is nothing he can do at the time, but his involvement allows for one my favorite moments: Watson employing Holmes’s deductive skills. True, it is for a single,  relatively inconsequential matter; but he does it and he’s right and he impresses the whole room and guys! Watson! is! an! intelligent! man! I mean, we’ve all known that for forever, but its rather nice to get such a clear nod of agreement from Dyole.

In addition to his intelligence, Watson exhibits a empathy and compassion that in this story will be matched (not surpassed) only by that of Holmes. As an old friend of Rylott’s now-dead wife, Watson acts as comforter to the surviving girl. We are told that he came immediately and probably well in opposition to his own convenience when first he heard of the tragedy, and his treatment of Enid is gentle without being patronizing. Unsettled by the Rylott household and clearly wishing he could do more, he also repeatedly urges Enid to contact him if she has any suspicion of danger. All of this prompts Enid to declare: “Your kindness has been the one gleam of light in these dark days.” It is a lovely description of the man who has been a light in the dark for at least one other—the sort of testament we would have been unlikely to hear of if this story were reported through Watson’s own narration.

Again, I’ll leave the majority of his interactions with Holmes for the next section, but it is worth mentioning that there is no objection from him when Holmes turns down an easy 500 pounds. Watson is intelligent and he is good—he saw the signs of abuse and he would not have his friend benefit on those terms. These scenes also provide a wonderful dose of protective Watson. And while Holmes is of course at the head of the investigation, he and Watson are wonderfully in sync, and Watson proves his worth.

When it comes down to it, the Holmes and Watson in this play are transparently the two deeply compatible men we seek to dig out of cannon: mutually sharp and compassionate, courageous and quick to protect, with Holmes giving Watson stimulation and purpose and the means to aid others, and Watson providing Holmes with a firm right hand and a ready ear and a steadiness that counteracts the extremities that drive Holmes to cocaine. Watson and Holmes as Doyle portrayed them—as no other adaptation would portray them for far too many years—are just kinda perfect for each other.

But Watson is engaged.

So … What About Johnlock?                                  

*buries head in hands* *giggles* *sobs* … Yeah. Yeah, it’s here. Yeah.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect from this play. I thought that perhaps the stage would strike Doyle as too exposed and vulnerable, or that perhaps he wouldn’t trust the actors, or that he would feel unsafe without the veneer of Watson’s narration—that, one way or another, he’d be persuaded to leave the gay subtext out of this one. But, um, Doyle? Buddy? Don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely chuffed that you managed to avoid allegations a la Oscar Wilde. But also … how?

Honestly, I’ve always wondered whether Doyle was aware that he was writing a love story or whether that’s what wound up on paper regardless of his intent. This play just might be my answer.

a.) Sherlock Holmes: The Work as a disguise

The most blaring subtext is concentrated in Act II Scene II, where Holmes first enters the stage and his primary interactions with Watson occur. This play takes place during one of the dark times when Watson isn’t living at Baker Street, and when he visits Holmes to present him with Enid’s case, Holmes comes out disguised as a workman. (Before this Watson comments with dismay on the evidence of Holmes’s continued cocaine habits—this will be significant later). The disguised Holmes pokes fun at Watson, who doesn’t recognize him, accusing him of being responsible for Holmes’s untidy habits. There may be a rather tragic subtextual undertone to the whole conversation, but there’s too much else to discuss. So I’ll leave that aside and instead highlight the exchange that occurs when Holmes drops his disguise:

WATSON: Good Heavens Holmes! I should never have recognized you. HOLMES: My dear Watson, when you begin to recognize me it will indeed be the beginning of the end. When your eagle eye penetrates my disguise I shall retire to an eligible poultry farm.

Now, this could be innocent enough—just a fun way to introduce the clever detective. But if one is at all alert to the mere possibility of subtext, alarum bells should be ringing full force at the fact that the first on-stage interaction between these two characters consists of Holme demonstrating his ability to hide his true identity from Watson, and then saying that if he was unable to deceive Watson it would literally be the end of his life as he knows it. And it’s worth taking note of his phrasing: not “when you begin to recognize my disguises,” but rather “when you begin to recognize me.” Is this just a matter of professional pride, or is there something deeper that Holmes is afraid of having discovered?

But you know, maybe I’m just reading into this. This is a story about preventing Enid’s murder, its got nothing to do with romance or love, that would be thematically inconsistent and out of place—

HOLMES: Well, Watson, what is your news? WATSON: Well, Holmes, I came here to tell you what I’m sure will please you. HOLMES: Engaged, Watson, engaged! … The successful suitor shines from you all over.

Oh. Okay then.

Now, it is important to understand that Watson’s marriage has literally nothing to do with the Rylott plot. The engagement in no way affects Watson’s movements, and Mary never appears on stage. No; the first half of this scene is devoted entirely to introducing us to Holmes—the few clients he sees in this section are clearly selected to give us a sense of his character, methods, and values. That means that for some reason Doyle thought that a proper understanding of Holmes requires a discussion of love and marriage—specifically, Watson’s marriage.

Watson, being an imbecile as well as an intelligent man, thinks Holmes will be pleased with his news. Holmes rises to the occasion as best he can, calling the news “better and better” when he discovers Mary Morstan is the woman Watson has chosen, but not before he lets slip the sentence: “What I had heard of you, or perhaps what I had not heard of you, had already excited my worst suspicions.” Worst suspicions, Holmes? I thought this was supposed to be giving you pleasure? Well, perhaps he’s merely being facetious.

But next moment he slips again, saying, “You lucky fellow! I envy you.” When Watson suggests that Holmes might find a woman of his own one day, Holmes cryptically replies: “No marriage without love, Watson.” This might have been the first line that really floored me—the bare fact of Holmes’s conviction that he will never love a woman (‘woman,’ of course, being implied in the concept of marriage at the time). But when Watson asks why, Holmes falls back on the “[love] would disturb my reason” nonsense.

Now to be clear, I understand that Holmes is specifically discussing romantic love here, and that there is no connection between a lack of romantic attachment and a lack of sentiment and care for others generally. But here’s the thing: Holmes’s self descriptor doesn’t depict him as aromantic—i.e., ‘I just don’t feel romantic stuff.’ It depicts him as a reasoning machine—‘strong emotions disrupt my process.’ And in context of literally every friggin thing he does in this entire play, that’s nonsense. It is abundantly clear that reason is his tool, but compassion and sentiment are his motives.

One might argue that this is slightly sloppy writing (it was composed in a hurry, after all), or that Holmes simply doesn’t have the words to describe his aromanticism. Yet just moments before he said he envied Watson’s relationship, and moments before that revealed himself to be a consummate actor whose very existence as he knows it depends on disguise …

The already unwieldy length of this analysis requires that I speed a bit through the goldmine that follows: through Holmes punting aside requests from a royal family and the actual Pope because Watson has a case in which he has a personal interest—and I can’t resist pointing out that Holmes says he will of course take the case if Watson has “any personal interest in it.” It’s not ‘I’ll make time in my busy schedule if this is really very important to you,’ it’s ‘oh, you have a thing that you at least kinda sorta care about? The Pope can wait.’ I must gloss over Holmes transparently wanting to get as much of Watson’s company as he can, declaring that he has always seen Watson as his partner, and wishing for a plaque with his and Watson’s names on it, despite heavy implications that Watson has been almost entirely absent from Holmes’s work for some time. I’ll just mention in passing the truly remarkable number of “my dear fellows” and “my dear Watsons" Holmes manages to drop in a brief space of time, his clear desire to protect Watson from the dangers of the case despite later informing Enid that he is “a useful companion on such an occasion,” and his cry of “No, Watson, no!” when his friend leaps up to protect him from the poker Rylott is threatening him with.

I will not, however, pass over what occurs when Watson leaves Holmes, intending to meet him at the train station later that day. Watson’s final words on his way out are: “Good bye—I’ll see you at the station,” to which Holmes replies, “Perhaps you will,” adding to himself: “Perhaps you will! Perhaps you won’t!” Ah, what’s that? On about disguising yourself from your best friend again, eh Holmes? But then, within the play this refers to the fact that Holmes intends to actually disguise himself at the train station, so it has a literal meaning and not a metaphorical one, it has nothing to do with a deeper hiddeness, certainly nothing to do with love—

HOLMES: Ever been in love Billy? BILLY: Not of late years, sir. HOLMES: Too busy, eh? BILLY: Yes, Mr. Holmes. HOLMES: Same here. Got my bag there, Billy? BILLY: Yes, sir. HOLMES: Put in that revolver. BILLY: Yes, sir. HOLMES: And the pipe and pouch. BILLY: Yes, sir. HOLMES: The lens and the tape? BILLY: Yes, sir. HOLMES: Plaster of Paris, for prints? BILLY: Yes, sir. HOLMES: Oh, and the cocaine.

Oh … oh. Shit.

Please understand that this exchange—consisting of Holmes again raising the topic of love immediately after returning to the subject of his disguise, both of which he addresses as soon as Watson has left, as if he could not discuss them in front of his friend—comes apropos of nothing except Watson’s announcement of his engagement far back at the beginning of the scene. And I don’t see how the way he raises the subject and dismisses it can be seen as anything but the covering of some deep emotion—there is longing in the way he immediately brings it up, showing that it has stuck in his mind the whole while, and something tragic in the way he next-moment dismisses the clear preoccupation with the claim of being ‘too busy,’ clearly echoing the ‘I envy you … love is not for me’ progression of his earlier exchange with Watson.

And I get that in theory this longing for but dismissal of love could be read in a number of ways besides a socially forbidden love for his recently engaged partner. One might argue, for example, that he is aromantic but lonely and longing for the consistency of attachment others find in romantic love, or that he’s bursting with all sorts of hetero affections that he has chosen to sacrifice for the sake of The Work.

I would simply ask any inclined towards those arguments to consider the framing of this scene. I would ask them to question why ACD chose to introduce and conclude the scene which functions as an introduction to Holmes with the detective’s ability and need to disguise himself from Watson specifically, immediately juxtaposed with discussions of romantic love and Holmes’s desire for it which is clearly present but immediately veiled—disguised?—by his commitment to the work, with the cocaine hovering ominously behind. Then consider that between these mirrored book-ends we watch Holmes allow the man from whom he must disguise himself to disrupt the flow of the work which he claimed was supreme, making clear his wish that Watson be drawn into that work—a desire counteracted only by the transparent fact that he would prefer to risk his own bodily injury rather than put his friend in harm’s way. Add to all of this that Doyle works in a mention of the Milverton case and thus allows Holmes to comment on how his ruse to undermine Milverton involves courting and being courted by a woman and how distasteful he finds the experience and—well, you much reach your own conclusions. I have reached mine.

b.) Watson: Substitutionary desire

I began by speaking of Holmes because the subtext is monumentally more apparent on his part, and unlike Holmes it would be easy and even (though I cringe to say it) reasonable to read Watson as a comfortable heterosexual in this play. Does this mean that Doyle wrote one of those dreadful adaptations in which Holmes is pining away with an unrequited love for a Watson who is incapable of returning his romantic affections?

Not necessarily. As far as I can tell, without the clear implication of Sherlock’s affections one would be on shaky ground arguing that Watson was intended as anything besides a Hetero Bro. However, the clear coding of Holmes as in love with Watson causes one to wonder whether the affection might not be returned, and the results of investigation are inconclusive but intriguing.

Although he doesn’t make an appearance until the second act, Holme is mentioned by Watson in the first scene. Assuring Enid that she can turn to him if she is in any need, he admits that there is little he can do on his own. But he then adds: “I have a singular friend—a man with strange powers and a very masterful personality. We used to live together, and I came to know him well. Holmes is his name—Mr. Sherlock Holmes. It is to him I should turn if things looked black for you. If any man in England could help it is he.”

To be fair, it is not unusual in stories for someone to describe the hero in grandiose terms before he is seen directly by the reader/audience. Still, that’s quite a way to describe one’s friend. I find myself particularly fixating on “strange powers and a very masterful personality.” You do realize that you could have just said he’s smart, right Watson? I mean, maybe things were different back then, but if I described my friend as having a ‘masterful personality’ and then tried to claim they were my platonic bestie, I’m pretty sure I’d get my fair share of dubious glances.

Watson mentions his friend once more when his application of Holmes’s methods to clear up a detail of the investigation prompts an impressed exclamation from the coroner, to which Watson responds: “I have a friend, sir, who trained me in such matters.”

So at the very least, we have a Watson who idolizes, respects, relies on, and emulates his friend—all of which makes the fact that he is no longer living with Holmes something of a puzzle.

You see, the play never gives us a reason for Watson having moved out. The comment to Enid in which he mentions that they “used to live together” occurs two years before Sherlock becomes involved with the case and Watson becomes engaged to Mary, so it clearly has nothing to do with her. Yet not only has he moved out, his involvement in the cases is implied to have dwindled significantly or even stopped altogether—in one of the saddest lines of the play, Holmes comments that of course Watson wouldn’t remember Milverton because: “it was after your time.”

But why these degrees of separation? At no point are there signs of any ill-will between the friends. The danger certainly wasn’t an issue for Watson: when Rylott threatens Holmes Watson literally “jumps” to protect him, and he insists on sharing the danger of the Rylott house. Nor does it seem viable to speculate that Baker Street’s location became inconvenient for Watson—the speed with which Rylott makes his way to Watson’s home and from there to Baker Street demonstrates that they still live quite close. One might more plausibly theorize that Watson was becoming more invested in his medical practice and involvement in Holmes’s work was interfering, but why would ACD make an alteration so irrelevant to the story and then not even explain it? After all, the friends were still living together in the short story from which this is adapted. What could be the point of such a change?

Well, the fact is, while their bond is undeniable and remarkably strong, there are hints of something … off between the friends. Despite claiming to see Watson as his equal partner, Holmes fails to communicate with him about how they will be involved in the Rylott case, telling Watson to come on the 11:15pm train but neglecting to mention that he will be going to the house in disguise some hours earlier. The motive behind this omission is unclear—he previously tried to dissuade Watson from joining the case on account of the danger, so perhaps Holmes intends for Watson to give up and stay away when Holmes does’t appear. (Watson, of course, comes anyhow). Or perhaps Holmes wished to be apart from Watson for a time in the wake of hearing of his engagement (Holmes calling for the cocaine comes unsettlingly to mind here) but knew Watson wouldn’t allow him to go to Rylott’s alone. But whatever Holmes’s motive, Watson knows only that he has been excluded and cut out. Similarly, if in the past he has sensed that Holmes was on some level disguising himself from him would he would not have been likely to imagine a flattering cause. One cannot help but wonder whether it is these exclusions that cause Watson, despite inserting himself determinately when Holmes’s safety is at stake, to feel that he must offer to remove himself from the room when Holmes calls in clients. Certainly Watson has no inkling that Holmes might be in love with him—no kind friend who suspected as much would introduce his engagement by saying: “I came here to tell you what I am sure will please you.”

This then, is what we have: two men who deeply admire each other, long for one another’s company, and would clearly die for one another, and yet one of them is hiding and the other running first from the house and then into marriage. We have good reason to believe the one is hiding because he fears revealing his love; is it unreasonable to suppose the other is running for the same reason? Is it strange to think that Watson, feeling unable to trust to his powers of disguise in the way Holmes can, feeling the continual sting of Holmes hiding from him and cutting him off and unable to interpret those actions as anything besides distrust or indifference, would have sought safety in distance and ultimately comfort in binding himself to another?

A final note: we know nothing about Mary in this play. Despite having come in part to announce his engagement, Watson has no rhapsodies to offer on behalf of his fiancee—he seems far more interested in Holmes’s propensity for love, and, failing that, in Holmes’s work. Although Holmes’s (admittedly not impartial) deductions imply that Watson is genuinely pleased with his engagement, we learn precisely two details about Mary, both from Holmes: first that she has red hair, and second that Watson chose a woman who Holmes “met and admired.” Despite their seemingly limited contact over the past two years, Watson still seems unable to be married without at least some reference to Sherlock Holmes.

c.) Sorry … have some petty ACD as recompense

I feel I owe you an apology. I am aware that if you had the patience to read my ridiculously long ramble and are convinced by my interpretation of the Holmes and Watson’s relationship in the play, your ‘reward’ is having a dark but ultimately triumphant detective story transformed into a fucking tragedy that ends with two broken hearts. All I can offer is the comfort of knowing that for 130 years neither marriage nor death nor the near erasure of Watson from the first forty years of stage and film adaptations have been able to keep these two apart. They will find their way back to one another.

Oh, and you also might enjoy hearing that this play is totally ACD’s revenge on heteronormativity.

Okay, I can’t prove that. But it really looks like it. You may be aware of the 1988 play Sherlock Holmes, written by Doyle and William Gillette. If you’re like me a week ago, you may not know that Doyle wrote the original script himself, and Gillette became involved only when Doyle’s script was rejected and the producer urged him to bring Gillette on to rewrite it. I like to imagine that the rejection letter went something like: “Look, buddy, you can’t have Holmes staring forlornly after Watson while instigating a wistful conversation about love with Billy. You just can’t,” but realistically we don’t know why the first draft was rejected. But we do know that Doyle specifically requested that Gillette not give Holmes a (female) love interest, and that Gillette sent Holmes off into the sunset with a woman anyway (x).

Then, eleven years later with a failing theater on his hands, Doyle locks himself away in a room and says, “Fuck it. Imma write a Holmes play, and when I introduce him the first thing everyone is going to know is that he’ll never marry a woman, and the last thing the introduction will tell them is that he’ll never marry a woman and—you know what, I’ll take that Milverton story where Holmes groans about needing to date a woman and throw that in the middle.” And that’s true of the play even if you don’t buy the queer reading. But also, its super gay.

And frankly I just love that not only did Doyle refuse to give in to society’s attempt to fit his story into their heteronormative mold, it actually worked and Doyle made up all the money he was poised to lose and more by shoving a gay love story into his audience’s face.

Well done, ACD, well done.

Conclusion: Should You Read It?                            

I mean, I think my answer is fairly obvious by now. If you’re interested and have the time, it is 100% worth it. And I hope it doesn’t feel like I’ve spoiled all the good parts. There are reams of gems I didn’t even allude to—and that’s not counting everything I doubtless missed.

I just have one request: if you do read the play and end up posting about it on tumblr, would you tag me in your comments? Hearing someone else’s thoughts on this hidden treasure would be a delight. 

@thespiritualmultinerd @a-candle-for-sherlock @missallainyus @steadymentalityengineer @iant0jones @devoursjohnlock @disregardedletters

[teonnaelliottart]

Claudette Johnson

Claudette Johnson is a British visual artist, most well-known for her lrge scale drawings of black women. 

Johnson is a Manchester born artist whom became a founding member of the BLK art group during her time at Wolverhampton Polytechnic along side Marlene Smith and Keith Piper. Although she is most recognised for giving the a seminar at the first national black arts conference – the most poignant moment in the black feminist arts movement in the UK.

Her portraits have been described at “deeply sensuous” and “richly coloured”. Her large scale drawings pf women are imposing pieces which demand the viewer’s attention and respect - altering the hierarchy depicted in historical paintings, in which black people are positioned lower and behind white people to represent their social status.

Johnson's work is in the collections of the Tate London, Rugby Art Gallery, Arts Council England, Mappin Art Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery and Wolverhampton Art Gallery

the work if claudette johnson was brought to my attention after attending a series of lectures on Black arts history, I became interested in the female black arts sector.  I had heard about her contribution to the 1st black radical art conference, the thin black line exhibit and the corridor exhibit which increased demand for art by Black female artists. Her large scale representations of the body extend the canvas as a statement of presence – an aspect which relates well to my own studio practise of large scale body parts which exceed the canvas. The lectures prompted me to research the artist further. One piece in particular, Standing Figure with African Masks, caught my attention for its bold colour scheme and. clear references to Picasso – cubism. im interested in her idea to bring black people - specifically women - into the foreground in a bid to defy western idealisms.

I wanted to discuss this piece for my visual analysis essay, however, I found it quite difficult to research. Not many of Johnson’ s artworks are discussed in literature of essays and there are lack of reviews online for her most recent exhibition: I came to dance 2018.

Research for essay

·         Who made it? Claudette Johnson

·         When was it made? 2018

·         For who was it made? Herself

·         For what purpose was it made? First major solo Exhibition 

·         What is it? A drawing / painting

·         What materials is it made from? Pastel and gouache on paper

·         What processes did the artist employ?

The figure’s skin and watch are rendered in dense pastel while her clothes – blue jeans, red shirt and black headscarf – are painted with loose brushstrokes of gouache paint with thick white inflections. Drawn from life by placing a mirror on a chair –1st self portrait of the artist.

1.    Large sheets of paper pinned to studio wall

2.    Draws in pastel often from life

3.    Block colour painting in gouache

4.    Finish off in pastel

5.    Background created innately to complement finished figure

·         What can you see in the image?

a black female posing in a crop top against an abstract background with African style masks surrounding her. Angle of painting is downward facing over the audience. 

·         How are the conceptual ideas communicated?

African masks – reference Picasso – artists culture

“I first saw Picasso’s Les Demoiselles D’Avignon (in reproduction) as a second year Fine Art student. I was struck by the rawness of the image, the fractured space, his use of African imagery and the fearlessness of the women. I referred to this work in And I have my own business 1982 (Museums Sheffield) in which a nappy headed woman with her arm raised and stomach thrust forward is bisected by a jagged yellow line. In Standing Figure with African Masks, the woman with her belly exposed directs her gaze out of the frame whilst being aware that she must negotiate a relationship with the African masked figures who are moving in from the periphery.” (Email correspondence with Tate curator Laura Castagnini, 6 November 2018.)

 Edges of paper/canvas as often torn and masking taped back together – representation of how black lives are easily neglected and discarded 

·         What history/text does it draw upon?

self-representation by Black women in defiance of the colonial gaze

“I am a Blackwoman and my work is concerned with making images of Blackwomen. Sounds simple enough – but I’m not interested in portraiture or its tradition. I’m interested in giving space to Blackwomen presence. A presence which has been distorted, hidden and denied. I’m interested in our humanity, our feelings and our politics; somethings [sic.] which have been neglected … I have a sense of urgency about our ‘apparent’ absence in a space we’ve inhabited for several centuries.” (Quoted in Claudette Johnson: Pushing Back the Boundaries, exhibition catalogue, Rochdale Art Gallery 1990, p.2.)

She is inspired by a generation of African American writers including James Baldwin, Toni Cade Bambara, Alice Walker and, most importantly Toni Morrison.

 Windthrush scandle, stop and search, police brutality usa

 Insists blackness is a fiction created by colonialism.

 ·         What pictorial conventions does it draw upon?

Image exceeds the canvas

Bright bold colour palette – blue black and red – used red in other works to represent mensural blood (a female only experience)

·         What can we say about the motivation/intention of the artist?

 She wants to bring black men and women into the foreground. she wants their presence to be known. 

·         What reception did the work receive from the audience at the time it was first exhibited?

 ·         Who owns the work? The tate 

·         How did they come to acquire it?

They purchased it from the holly bush gardens to 

·         How much did it cost? Unknown 

·         How is it presented?

Framed in a white frame and hung on the wall

·         Who looks at it?

Anyone interested in black arts history or art in general. It can be viewed over the internet as well as in exhibitions.

[narcisbolgor-blog]

Bride Returns From Hen Party To Learn The Terrible Truth About Her Fianc’s Affair

Your wedding day is supposed to be the best day of your life, as you celebrate officially uniting with the love of your life, whilst surrounded by family and friends.

However, for 37-year-old, Sarah Cocker her happy day was ruined before it even begun when she learned that her husband-to-be, Chris Heraty, had cheated on her with her best friend, Nikki Scandling. Cocker, who has two children with her fiancé, cancelled the ceremony two months before it was due to take place in July this year. This decision left her thousands of pounds out of pocket and humiliated as she had to break the news to friends and family. Cocker and Heraty had been together for five years before they committed to tying the knot and together they have two children, aged two and four. However, that wasn’t enough to stop Heraty from exploring love in other places. Cocker was clueless about her fiancé’s infidelity, so much so that she invited her close friend, Scalding, to her hen do in Costa Blanca, Spain. The large group celebrated in style with a 1920s themed party on the first evening. It was during this night that Scalding approached the bride-to-be on the dance floor. “Are you having fun?” she asked Cocker, who responded, “Sure am!”. For the duration of their three day holiday, Scalding would continue to be very “nicey-nicey” to her friend, who was oblivious to the fact that she may have had ulterior motives. Upon returning home, Cocker was greeted by her husband-to-be who complimented her tan and said, “it’s good to have you back.” However, a few days later cracks began to show when Heraty went out drinking on the Saturday with work colleagues. He told Cocker that he would be staying at his mother’s house that night, as the trains ran more frequently back to her house from the town. After Cocker put the children to bed, she expected to hear from her partner, but no message came. Exhausted from her hen party antics, she fell asleep at 8.30pm. When she awoke in the morning, Heraty had still not contacted. Assuming he was lying in, she gave him the benefit of the doubt.  However, by 3pm she still hadn’t heard from him. Having not heard anything from her fiancé in 24 hours, she began to experience “a funny feeling in her gut.” Finally, she text him for an update. He responded to say he was safe, but “feeling rough” and would be home in a few hours. He then didn’t arrive home til 5pm on Sunday, while the children were having their dinner. Under further probing, Heraty confessed that they had “missed the train,” so he “stayed at Rachel’s.” This infuriated Cocker, who asked him outright if he was having an affair with Rachel, a good friend of hers. However, it would transpire that Rachel was the least of her worries. Heraty stormed out of the house and denied having had an affair with Rachel. But, Cocker could tell that something was “just not right”. Unable to face him in person, she text him to ask: “Have you been unfaithful to me?” to which he responded: “No nothing is going on with Rachel at all.” Dissatisfied, Cocker sent a further message, which read: “Anyone else?”. But, she was not expecting the reply… “No but there is something to tell you though, me and Nikki have kissed. I’m so sorry Sarah xxx” he replied. Upon reading the message, Cocker felt instantly sick. Heraty went on to confess that he had kissed Nikki the night before and on one other occasion.

“My eyes welled with tears and my hands shook as I re-read Chris’s messages over and over. But then my thoughts turned to Nikki. On the hen do she had been so nicey-nicey, all while hiding this dirty little secret. Come to think about it, she’d been over-the-top nice. Now it all made sense.

We were meant to be walking down the aisle in just eight weeks’ time, yet now my dream wedding was fading fast. It was so out of character – I’d always trusted Chris 100%.”

Heraty tried to comfort his wife-to-be, but Cocker wasn’t prepared to forgive him. The next day, they both went to work where Cocker “plastered a smile across [her] face,” until the evening arrived and her fiancé could reveal the truth about his adultery.

“I’d had all day to think and I’d made a decision. If Chris grovelled and showed genuine remorse, I was prepared to forgive him. But all he could do was keep mumbling sorry.”

Cocker was shocked that the man she was to marry showed absolutely no remorse for his behavior. So she asked him if he loved her, to which he said he did. Not content with the sincerity of his response, Cocker asked: “Can you honestly stand at the altar and say those vows?”. In response, the father of her children just looked “sheepish”. When Cocker asked him why he thought kissing one of her friends was appropriate, he said: “What an idiot I am and how much everyone’s going to hate me.” However, the breaking point came when Cocker asked if it had been worth it, to which he replied: “I think so yeah.” Furious, Cocker made him pack his bags and leave, which he did without question. “I couldn’t believe I’d been jilted before I’d got to the altar and that my groom had given up everything we had for a stupid fling,” she told The Sun.

“Over the next few days I felt physically sick and was unable to eat. But then something changed in me and I saw red. I texted Chris’s mum and sister to tell them what he’d done and like me, they were absolutely gobsmacked.”

She ensured that she informed all of the wedding guests that the date had been cancelled, but craftily left Nikki until last. “Are you not talking to me Nikki?” she asked in a text. “Sarah I am so sorry I don’t know what to say. I am heartbroken and devastated that I have hurt you.” she quickly replied. The next day, Heraty came to collect his things. Broken, and now facing huge fees for a wedding that was now cancelled, Cocker felt extremely depressed. However, after she posted a picture of Nikki to Facebook to alert all her friends to the truth, she began to smile as she saw their responses of support flooded in.

“My friends’ comments were coming in thick and fast and suddenly I found myself smiling for the first time in ages. Now I’m still battling with wedding suppliers and I still can’t believe I’m no longer marrying the man I loved. I also have my honeymoon to Barcelona coming up, which I’m still going on but with my bridesmaid.

Chris broke my heart and destroyed the wonderful future we could have had, but I’m just glad I found out who he really was before that ring was on my finger.”

Both Heraty and Nikki have refused to comment on the story and offer their side.

More From this publisher : HERE

=> *********************************************** Source Here: Bride Returns From Hen Party To Learn The Terrible Truth About Her Fianc’s Affair ************************************ =>

Bride Returns From Hen Party To Learn The Terrible Truth About Her Fianc’s Affair was originally posted by 11 VA Viral News

[stahleys-blog]

Chapter 19 & 20

In the sixteenth century much of the art was influenced by religion and science. There were many breakthroughs in science during this time period. William Harvey established the concept of blood circulation and Isaac Newton discovered the rules of gravity. Both of these discoveries are revolutionary and still impact us greatly to this day. This was also the time where they truly established that the earth was not the center of the universe.

The Baroque style is the main style used in this time period. Baroque means “irregular, and therefore imperfect, pearl” (pg 333). This style was emotional and dramatic compared to other styles before it. This style originated in Italy.

Architecture was a large part of this artistic style. Pope Urban VIII hired Gianlorenzo Bernini to design a church to be beautiful. He was not able to complete this due to his death. This is when the baldachino or canopy over the altar was made and used in most churches since then. The outside of the church was later designed to create a dramatic enterance into the church. This is a circular enterance around which you can walk through or around. They are beautiful pillars that look dramatic and beautiful leading up to the grand church. These unique touches are not necessary but looking at the church it definetly brings out the dramatic in the Boroque style that was used on this church.

In chapter twenty they talk about the Rococo style that was established in the eighteenth century. The Rococo style is normally found in parks and gardens. This style stands for style and grace but is also exotic. This style originated in China. This style focused more on houses and the upper middle class. This style went along with the advancement of music by Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, and Mozart. It also went along with science when oxygen was discovered by Edmund Halley. The steam engine was also made by James Watt.

I really enjoyed Jean-Honore Fragonard’s painting entitled “Swing”. This is of a woman who is swinging in a pink frilly dress in the middle of a forest. She has a hat on matching the dress and seems to be care free. The softness of the picture goes along with the style. There is scandle in the painting by her shoe flying off and his hat off his head. In this time period this was considered sexual references. The statue of cupid continues the theme and he has a finger to his lips while watching the couple. The painter saw himself as the man watching his mistress swinging care free. The swing indicates that they are free willed and do not go by the rules of the time where there would be no sexual content in any of the paintings.

The paintings in these times were revolutionary and shaped how our art is today. It is very interesting how the religion and scandal can somehow be in the same style of painting and architecture. It was beautiful how the colors and textures came together to form the painting and sculptures of the different styles.

[pat78701]

Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

After a two-weeks of being berated by their constituents at raucous town halls—and watching Democrats come close to flipping two solidly red districts in Kansas and Georgia—members of Congress return to DC Monday. With few legislative accomplishments under their belts so far, they now face a government funding deadline, a debt ceiling increase, demands from the White House to take another swing at repealing Obamacare, and the daunting, likely impossible task of overhauling the tax code by August.

Though Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House, deep divisions on all these issues remain, exacerbated by weeks of finger-pointing and inter-party threats in the wake of the health care bill’s embarrassing demise. And the closer it gets to the 2018 midterm elections, the more cautious members in swing districts will become about sticking their neck out to vote for controversial or unpopular bills.

“They have a lot to accomplish, but it’s a big question mark whether they’ll be able to do it,” said Dan Scandling, who worked as a senior staffer for GOP lawmakers for nearly 25 years. “At some point the Republicans have to start delivering, or their base will start showing up at their town halls saying, ‘Hey, you for years said if we gave you a Republican House and Senate you’d get things done. What’s the holdup?'”

Because members face enormous pressure to at least appear that they are making progress on the people’s business, we can expect to see a great deal of stalling, finger-pointing, earnest press conferences, bouts of secret negotiations, and other forms of political theater in the months ahead. For Republicans, the show must go on.

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

Under President Obama, each government funding and debt ceiling deadline offered Republicans a fresh opportunity to engage in brinksmanship and win concessions on red-meat issues like private school vouchers and abortion. This practice peaked in 2013, when Republicans triggered a two-week government shutdown over the implementation of Affordable Care Act.

This time around, despite breathless news reports that some members of both parties and the Trump administration are gunning for a shutdown showdown, Republican leaders acknowledge they have zero incentive to shutter a government under their own unified control. To do so would be a self-own for the ages.

“With a Republican House, Republican Senate and Republican administration, we don’t want to stumble into a shutdown,” warned Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee currently drafting the budget.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

And with several Republicans publicly declaring they won’t vote for any short-term budget—out of concern it will hurt the military’s ability to plan ahead—GOP leaders know they will need Democratic votes in order to get anything to the president’s desk. This leverage has allowed Democrats to lay down several red lines.

“Our position has been crystal clear,” Matthew Dennis, an aide for the House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY), told TPM. “There are several poison pill riders that the President wants, and they are articulating those priorities to Republicans in Congress. But we will not provide any money to fund the border wall. We won’t agree to defunding Planned Parenthood or Sanctuary Cities, or underfunding any critical domestic programs.”

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Dennis said negotiations “in good faith” took place over the congressional recess between Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate. But the White House  threw a wrench into the process over the weekend by insisting that the budget include billions in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and for hiring more Border Patrol and ICE officers.

“We want wall funding. We want [immigration] agents. Those are our priorities,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told the Associated Press. President Trump’s year-long campaign promise that Mexico will pay for the wall—which even top Republicans dismissed as a fantasy—has turned into vague assurances of eventual reimbursement.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

Despite this White House bluster, Republicans in Congress do not seem eager to push for these demands if doing so would risk a shutdown on their watch. As Rep. Davis (R-IL) told CNN on Friday when asked about the border wall funding: “I don’t think there’s any appetite for a shutdown.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has previously vowed to block any new funding for what he calls a “pointless wall,” boasted last week that negotiations over recess were “so far, so good” for Democrats.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a “one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

After the first version of GOP health care bill died a humiliating death in March—pulled from the floor minutes before a vote that would have defeated the legislation—top Republicans vowed to stop setting “arbitrary deadlines” and to be more transparent the next time around.

“One of the lessons we learned from this process is to let it be slow and deliberate and give everyone a chance to try to bring their ideas to the table,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee told reporters before recess.

But under pressure from a White House desperate for a tangible victory within the largely meaningless “first 100 days” window, the GOP is gearing up for another rushed vote on a revised bill drafted behind closed doors over the recess.

Though no legislative text has been unveiled and no whip count taken to gauge support, some members made noises last week about a brand new amendment they say can bring the House GOP’s warring factions together and get the struggling health care bill across the finish line.

This latest act in the GOP’s Kabuki health care drama has played out much like the previous amendments and deals they have rolled out—which similarly have done nothing to bridge the fundamental ideological divide between lawmakers who believe the government has no business at all in the health care sector and those who believe the government has a responsibility to care for the sick and the vulnerable.

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Almost immediately after the latest deal was announced, a proposal to allow states to easily opt of Obamacare’s cost protections for people with pre-existing conditions, lawmakers were tamping down expectations—telling TPM that it is not clear the measure could garner the 216 votes necessary to pass the House. Others say even the prospects of a vote on the bill this week are dim.

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

“They have to show they’re trying to move the ball forward,” Scandling said. “It’s kind of like a Hail Mary pass in my opinion, but it’s important to the Speaker and President to get a win on the board.”

Tax morass

The drawn out song-and-dance around health care, the budget, the border wall, and sanctuary cities may be a mere opening act to President Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans plans to tackle an overhaul of the U.S. tax code.

For decades, the raison d’etre for the GOP has been cutting taxes, and the Trump administration came into office promising to deliver on this by Congress’ August recess. But after watching a Hill Republicans’ seven-years-long battle cry to repeal Obamacare collapse in a just a few weeks, hopes for meeting the August deadline have faded.

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

Again, as with health care, Republicans have not yet addressed some basic hurdles. For one, will Republicans who have for years decried the ballooning federal deficit support the deep tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that would add an estimated $6.2 trillion dollars to that deficit?

“If you don’t have a savings, it can’t move forward,” Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told TPM before leaving DC for recess. “In a conference that doesn’t like deficits, you have to have a pay-for. If all you do is cut taxes, there’s the question of the pay-for and our $20 trillion in debt.”

Without a revenue generator, Republicans may only be able to propose a very modest tax cut, though this will do little to inspire lawmakers desperate for a tangible victory to show their constituents ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

Additionally, any plan that increases the deficit over the next decade can’t pass the Senate with a simple majority vote under the rules of reconciliation, meaning Republicans would need to win over Democratic votes in an atmosphere where fired-up Democrats are in no mood to bail out their colleagues and help President Trump.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin provided a laughable answer to this conundrum last week, assuring lawmakers and the public that the plan to slash corporate taxes will “pay for itself with growth” and generate at least $2 trillion dollars—a promise even conservative economists characterize as fuzzy math and wishful thinking.

What options are left? The one concrete proposal on the table to raise revenue, a border adjustment tax (BAT), has come under fire from those fearing constituent anger over higher prices at grocery stores, Walmarts, and gas stations.

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

And the one proposal aimed at reducing the tax of middle class working Americans, the elimination of the payroll tax, is already drawing the ire of the AARP and other advocacy groups who note that this would imperil the Social Security trust fund.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2olL3NG

[repwincoml4a0a5]

Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

After a two-weeks of being berated by their constituents at raucous town halls—and watching Democrats come close to flipping two solidly red districts in Kansas and Georgia—members of Congress return to DC Monday. With few legislative accomplishments under their belts so far, they now face a government funding deadline, a debt ceiling increase, demands from the White House to take another swing at repealing Obamacare, and the daunting, likely impossible task of overhauling the tax code by August.

Though Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House, deep divisions on all these issues remain, exacerbated by weeks of finger-pointing and inter-party threats in the wake of the health care bill’s embarrassing demise. And the closer it gets to the 2018 midterm elections, the more cautious members in swing districts will become about sticking their neck out to vote for controversial or unpopular bills.

“They have a lot to accomplish, but it’s a big question mark whether they’ll be able to do it,” said Dan Scandling, who worked as a senior staffer for GOP lawmakers for nearly 25 years. “At some point the Republicans have to start delivering, or their base will start showing up at their town halls saying, ‘Hey, you for years said if we gave you a Republican House and Senate you’d get things done. What’s the holdup?'”

Because members face enormous pressure to at least appear that they are making progress on the people’s business, we can expect to see a great deal of stalling, finger-pointing, earnest press conferences, bouts of secret negotiations, and other forms of political theater in the months ahead. For Republicans, the show must go on.

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

Under President Obama, each government funding and debt ceiling deadline offered Republicans a fresh opportunity to engage in brinksmanship and win concessions on red-meat issues like private school vouchers and abortion. This practice peaked in 2013, when Republicans triggered a two-week government shutdown over the implementation of Affordable Care Act.

This time around, despite breathless news reports that some members of both parties and the Trump administration are gunning for a shutdown showdown, Republican leaders acknowledge they have zero incentive to shutter a government under their own unified control. To do so would be a self-own for the ages.

“With a Republican House, Republican Senate and Republican administration, we don’t want to stumble into a shutdown,” warned Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee currently drafting the budget.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

And with several Republicans publicly declaring they won’t vote for any short-term budget—out of concern it will hurt the military’s ability to plan ahead—GOP leaders know they will need Democratic votes in order to get anything to the president’s desk. This leverage has allowed Democrats to lay down several red lines.

“Our position has been crystal clear,” Matthew Dennis, an aide for the House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY), told TPM. “There are several poison pill riders that the President wants, and they are articulating those priorities to Republicans in Congress. But we will not provide any money to fund the border wall. We won’t agree to defunding Planned Parenthood or Sanctuary Cities, or underfunding any critical domestic programs.”

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Dennis said negotiations “in good faith” took place over the congressional recess between Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate. But the White House  threw a wrench into the process over the weekend by insisting that the budget include billions in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and for hiring more Border Patrol and ICE officers.

“We want wall funding. We want [immigration] agents. Those are our priorities,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told the Associated Press. President Trump’s year-long campaign promise that Mexico will pay for the wall—which even top Republicans dismissed as a fantasy—has turned into vague assurances of eventual reimbursement.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

Despite this White House bluster, Republicans in Congress do not seem eager to push for these demands if doing so would risk a shutdown on their watch. As Rep. Davis (R-IL) told CNN on Friday when asked about the border wall funding: “I don’t think there’s any appetite for a shutdown.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has previously vowed to block any new funding for what he calls a “pointless wall,” boasted last week that negotiations over recess were “so far, so good” for Democrats.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a “one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

After the first version of GOP health care bill died a humiliating death in March—pulled from the floor minutes before a vote that would have defeated the legislation—top Republicans vowed to stop setting “arbitrary deadlines” and to be more transparent the next time around.

“One of the lessons we learned from this process is to let it be slow and deliberate and give everyone a chance to try to bring their ideas to the table,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee told reporters before recess.

But under pressure from a White House desperate for a tangible victory within the largely meaningless “first 100 days” window, the GOP is gearing up for another rushed vote on a revised bill drafted behind closed doors over the recess.

Though no legislative text has been unveiled and no whip count taken to gauge support, some members made noises last week about a brand new amendment they say can bring the House GOP’s warring factions together and get the struggling health care bill across the finish line.

This latest act in the GOP’s Kabuki health care drama has played out much like the previous amendments and deals they have rolled out—which similarly have done nothing to bridge the fundamental ideological divide between lawmakers who believe the government has no business at all in the health care sector and those who believe the government has a responsibility to care for the sick and the vulnerable.

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Almost immediately after the latest deal was announced, a proposal to allow states to easily opt of Obamacare’s cost protections for people with pre-existing conditions, lawmakers were tamping down expectations—telling TPM that it is not clear the measure could garner the 216 votes necessary to pass the House. Others say even the prospects of a vote on the bill this week are dim.

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

“They have to show they’re trying to move the ball forward,” Scandling said. “It’s kind of like a Hail Mary pass in my opinion, but it’s important to the Speaker and President to get a win on the board.”

Tax morass

The drawn out song-and-dance around health care, the budget, the border wall, and sanctuary cities may be a mere opening act to President Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans plans to tackle an overhaul of the U.S. tax code.

For decades, the raison d’etre for the GOP has been cutting taxes, and the Trump administration came into office promising to deliver on this by Congress’ August recess. But after watching a Hill Republicans’ seven-years-long battle cry to repeal Obamacare collapse in a just a few weeks, hopes for meeting the August deadline have faded.

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

Again, as with health care, Republicans have not yet addressed some basic hurdles. For one, will Republicans who have for years decried the ballooning federal deficit support the deep tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that would add an estimated $6.2 trillion dollars to that deficit?

“If you don’t have a savings, it can’t move forward,” Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told TPM before leaving DC for recess. “In a conference that doesn’t like deficits, you have to have a pay-for. If all you do is cut taxes, there’s the question of the pay-for and our $20 trillion in debt.”

Without a revenue generator, Republicans may only be able to propose a very modest tax cut, though this will do little to inspire lawmakers desperate for a tangible victory to show their constituents ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

Additionally, any plan that increases the deficit over the next decade can’t pass the Senate with a simple majority vote under the rules of reconciliation, meaning Republicans would need to win over Democratic votes in an atmosphere where fired-up Democrats are in no mood to bail out their colleagues and help President Trump.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin provided a laughable answer to this conundrum last week, assuring lawmakers and the public that the plan to slash corporate taxes will “pay for itself with growth” and generate at least $2 trillion dollars—a promise even conservative economists characterize as fuzzy math and wishful thinking.

What options are left? The one concrete proposal on the table to raise revenue, a border adjustment tax (BAT), has come under fire from those fearing constituent anger over higher prices at grocery stores, Walmarts, and gas stations.

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

And the one proposal aimed at reducing the tax of middle class working Americans, the elimination of the payroll tax, is already drawing the ire of the AARP and other advocacy groups who note that this would imperil the Social Security trust fund.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2olL3NG

[grgedoors02142]

Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

After a two-weeks of being berated by their constituents at raucous town halls—and watching Democrats come close to flipping two solidly red districts in Kansas and Georgia—members of Congress return to DC Monday. With few legislative accomplishments under their belts so far, they now face a government funding deadline, a debt ceiling increase, demands from the White House to take another swing at repealing Obamacare, and the daunting, likely impossible task of overhauling the tax code by August.

Though Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House, deep divisions on all these issues remain, exacerbated by weeks of finger-pointing and inter-party threats in the wake of the health care bill’s embarrassing demise. And the closer it gets to the 2018 midterm elections, the more cautious members in swing districts will become about sticking their neck out to vote for controversial or unpopular bills.

“They have a lot to accomplish, but it’s a big question mark whether they’ll be able to do it,” said Dan Scandling, who worked as a senior staffer for GOP lawmakers for nearly 25 years. “At some point the Republicans have to start delivering, or their base will start showing up at their town halls saying, ‘Hey, you for years said if we gave you a Republican House and Senate you’d get things done. What’s the holdup?'”

Because members face enormous pressure to at least appear that they are making progress on the people’s business, we can expect to see a great deal of stalling, finger-pointing, earnest press conferences, bouts of secret negotiations, and other forms of political theater in the months ahead. For Republicans, the show must go on.

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

Under President Obama, each government funding and debt ceiling deadline offered Republicans a fresh opportunity to engage in brinksmanship and win concessions on red-meat issues like private school vouchers and abortion. This practice peaked in 2013, when Republicans triggered a two-week government shutdown over the implementation of Affordable Care Act.

This time around, despite breathless news reports that some members of both parties and the Trump administration are gunning for a shutdown showdown, Republican leaders acknowledge they have zero incentive to shutter a government under their own unified control. To do so would be a self-own for the ages.

“With a Republican House, Republican Senate and Republican administration, we don’t want to stumble into a shutdown,” warned Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee currently drafting the budget.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

And with several Republicans publicly declaring they won’t vote for any short-term budget—out of concern it will hurt the military’s ability to plan ahead—GOP leaders know they will need Democratic votes in order to get anything to the president’s desk. This leverage has allowed Democrats to lay down several red lines.

“Our position has been crystal clear,” Matthew Dennis, an aide for the House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY), told TPM. “There are several poison pill riders that the President wants, and they are articulating those priorities to Republicans in Congress. But we will not provide any money to fund the border wall. We won’t agree to defunding Planned Parenthood or Sanctuary Cities, or underfunding any critical domestic programs.”

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Dennis said negotiations “in good faith” took place over the congressional recess between Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate. But the White House  threw a wrench into the process over the weekend by insisting that the budget include billions in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and for hiring more Border Patrol and ICE officers.

“We want wall funding. We want [immigration] agents. Those are our priorities,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told the Associated Press. President Trump’s year-long campaign promise that Mexico will pay for the wall—which even top Republicans dismissed as a fantasy—has turned into vague assurances of eventual reimbursement.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

Despite this White House bluster, Republicans in Congress do not seem eager to push for these demands if doing so would risk a shutdown on their watch. As Rep. Davis (R-IL) told CNN on Friday when asked about the border wall funding: “I don’t think there’s any appetite for a shutdown.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has previously vowed to block any new funding for what he calls a “pointless wall,” boasted last week that negotiations over recess were “so far, so good” for Democrats.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a “one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

After the first version of GOP health care bill died a humiliating death in March—pulled from the floor minutes before a vote that would have defeated the legislation—top Republicans vowed to stop setting “arbitrary deadlines” and to be more transparent the next time around.

“One of the lessons we learned from this process is to let it be slow and deliberate and give everyone a chance to try to bring their ideas to the table,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee told reporters before recess.

But under pressure from a White House desperate for a tangible victory within the largely meaningless “first 100 days” window, the GOP is gearing up for another rushed vote on a revised bill drafted behind closed doors over the recess.

Though no legislative text has been unveiled and no whip count taken to gauge support, some members made noises last week about a brand new amendment they say can bring the House GOP’s warring factions together and get the struggling health care bill across the finish line.

This latest act in the GOP’s Kabuki health care drama has played out much like the previous amendments and deals they have rolled out—which similarly have done nothing to bridge the fundamental ideological divide between lawmakers who believe the government has no business at all in the health care sector and those who believe the government has a responsibility to care for the sick and the vulnerable.

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Almost immediately after the latest deal was announced, a proposal to allow states to easily opt of Obamacare’s cost protections for people with pre-existing conditions, lawmakers were tamping down expectations—telling TPM that it is not clear the measure could garner the 216 votes necessary to pass the House. Others say even the prospects of a vote on the bill this week are dim.

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

“They have to show they’re trying to move the ball forward,” Scandling said. “It’s kind of like a Hail Mary pass in my opinion, but it’s important to the Speaker and President to get a win on the board.”

Tax morass

The drawn out song-and-dance around health care, the budget, the border wall, and sanctuary cities may be a mere opening act to President Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans plans to tackle an overhaul of the U.S. tax code.

For decades, the raison d’etre for the GOP has been cutting taxes, and the Trump administration came into office promising to deliver on this by Congress’ August recess. But after watching a Hill Republicans’ seven-years-long battle cry to repeal Obamacare collapse in a just a few weeks, hopes for meeting the August deadline have faded.

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

Again, as with health care, Republicans have not yet addressed some basic hurdles. For one, will Republicans who have for years decried the ballooning federal deficit support the deep tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that would add an estimated $6.2 trillion dollars to that deficit?

“If you don’t have a savings, it can’t move forward,” Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told TPM before leaving DC for recess. “In a conference that doesn’t like deficits, you have to have a pay-for. If all you do is cut taxes, there’s the question of the pay-for and our $20 trillion in debt.”

Without a revenue generator, Republicans may only be able to propose a very modest tax cut, though this will do little to inspire lawmakers desperate for a tangible victory to show their constituents ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

Additionally, any plan that increases the deficit over the next decade can’t pass the Senate with a simple majority vote under the rules of reconciliation, meaning Republicans would need to win over Democratic votes in an atmosphere where fired-up Democrats are in no mood to bail out their colleagues and help President Trump.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin provided a laughable answer to this conundrum last week, assuring lawmakers and the public that the plan to slash corporate taxes will “pay for itself with growth” and generate at least $2 trillion dollars—a promise even conservative economists characterize as fuzzy math and wishful thinking.

What options are left? The one concrete proposal on the table to raise revenue, a border adjustment tax (BAT), has come under fire from those fearing constituent anger over higher prices at grocery stores, Walmarts, and gas stations.

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

And the one proposal aimed at reducing the tax of middle class working Americans, the elimination of the payroll tax, is already drawing the ire of the AARP and other advocacy groups who note that this would imperil the Social Security trust fund.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2olL3NG

[exfrenchdorsl4p0a1]

Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

After a two-weeks of being berated by their constituents at raucous town halls—and watching Democrats come close to flipping two solidly red districts in Kansas and Georgia—members of Congress return to DC Monday. With few legislative accomplishments under their belts so far, they now face a government funding deadline, a debt ceiling increase, demands from the White House to take another swing at repealing Obamacare, and the daunting, likely impossible task of overhauling the tax code by August.

Though Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House, deep divisions on all these issues remain, exacerbated by weeks of finger-pointing and inter-party threats in the wake of the health care bill’s embarrassing demise. And the closer it gets to the 2018 midterm elections, the more cautious members in swing districts will become about sticking their neck out to vote for controversial or unpopular bills.

“They have a lot to accomplish, but it’s a big question mark whether they’ll be able to do it,” said Dan Scandling, who worked as a senior staffer for GOP lawmakers for nearly 25 years. “At some point the Republicans have to start delivering, or their base will start showing up at their town halls saying, ‘Hey, you for years said if we gave you a Republican House and Senate you’d get things done. What’s the holdup?'”

Because members face enormous pressure to at least appear that they are making progress on the people’s business, we can expect to see a great deal of stalling, finger-pointing, earnest press conferences, bouts of secret negotiations, and other forms of political theater in the months ahead. For Republicans, the show must go on.

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

Under President Obama, each government funding and debt ceiling deadline offered Republicans a fresh opportunity to engage in brinksmanship and win concessions on red-meat issues like private school vouchers and abortion. This practice peaked in 2013, when Republicans triggered a two-week government shutdown over the implementation of Affordable Care Act.

This time around, despite breathless news reports that some members of both parties and the Trump administration are gunning for a shutdown showdown, Republican leaders acknowledge they have zero incentive to shutter a government under their own unified control. To do so would be a self-own for the ages.

“With a Republican House, Republican Senate and Republican administration, we don’t want to stumble into a shutdown,” warned Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee currently drafting the budget.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

And with several Republicans publicly declaring they won’t vote for any short-term budget—out of concern it will hurt the military’s ability to plan ahead—GOP leaders know they will need Democratic votes in order to get anything to the president’s desk. This leverage has allowed Democrats to lay down several red lines.

“Our position has been crystal clear,” Matthew Dennis, an aide for the House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY), told TPM. “There are several poison pill riders that the President wants, and they are articulating those priorities to Republicans in Congress. But we will not provide any money to fund the border wall. We won’t agree to defunding Planned Parenthood or Sanctuary Cities, or underfunding any critical domestic programs.”

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Dennis said negotiations “in good faith” took place over the congressional recess between Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate. But the White House  threw a wrench into the process over the weekend by insisting that the budget include billions in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and for hiring more Border Patrol and ICE officers.

“We want wall funding. We want [immigration] agents. Those are our priorities,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told the Associated Press. President Trump’s year-long campaign promise that Mexico will pay for the wall—which even top Republicans dismissed as a fantasy—has turned into vague assurances of eventual reimbursement.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

Despite this White House bluster, Republicans in Congress do not seem eager to push for these demands if doing so would risk a shutdown on their watch. As Rep. Davis (R-IL) told CNN on Friday when asked about the border wall funding: “I don’t think there’s any appetite for a shutdown.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has previously vowed to block any new funding for what he calls a “pointless wall,” boasted last week that negotiations over recess were “so far, so good” for Democrats.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a “one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

After the first version of GOP health care bill died a humiliating death in March—pulled from the floor minutes before a vote that would have defeated the legislation—top Republicans vowed to stop setting “arbitrary deadlines” and to be more transparent the next time around.

“One of the lessons we learned from this process is to let it be slow and deliberate and give everyone a chance to try to bring their ideas to the table,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee told reporters before recess.

But under pressure from a White House desperate for a tangible victory within the largely meaningless “first 100 days” window, the GOP is gearing up for another rushed vote on a revised bill drafted behind closed doors over the recess.

Though no legislative text has been unveiled and no whip count taken to gauge support, some members made noises last week about a brand new amendment they say can bring the House GOP’s warring factions together and get the struggling health care bill across the finish line.

This latest act in the GOP’s Kabuki health care drama has played out much like the previous amendments and deals they have rolled out—which similarly have done nothing to bridge the fundamental ideological divide between lawmakers who believe the government has no business at all in the health care sector and those who believe the government has a responsibility to care for the sick and the vulnerable.

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Almost immediately after the latest deal was announced, a proposal to allow states to easily opt of Obamacare’s cost protections for people with pre-existing conditions, lawmakers were tamping down expectations—telling TPM that it is not clear the measure could garner the 216 votes necessary to pass the House. Others say even the prospects of a vote on the bill this week are dim.

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

“They have to show they’re trying to move the ball forward,” Scandling said. “It’s kind of like a Hail Mary pass in my opinion, but it’s important to the Speaker and President to get a win on the board.”

Tax morass

The drawn out song-and-dance around health care, the budget, the border wall, and sanctuary cities may be a mere opening act to President Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans plans to tackle an overhaul of the U.S. tax code.

For decades, the raison d’etre for the GOP has been cutting taxes, and the Trump administration came into office promising to deliver on this by Congress’ August recess. But after watching a Hill Republicans’ seven-years-long battle cry to repeal Obamacare collapse in a just a few weeks, hopes for meeting the August deadline have faded.

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

Again, as with health care, Republicans have not yet addressed some basic hurdles. For one, will Republicans who have for years decried the ballooning federal deficit support the deep tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that would add an estimated $6.2 trillion dollars to that deficit?

“If you don’t have a savings, it can’t move forward,” Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told TPM before leaving DC for recess. “In a conference that doesn’t like deficits, you have to have a pay-for. If all you do is cut taxes, there’s the question of the pay-for and our $20 trillion in debt.”

Without a revenue generator, Republicans may only be able to propose a very modest tax cut, though this will do little to inspire lawmakers desperate for a tangible victory to show their constituents ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

Additionally, any plan that increases the deficit over the next decade can’t pass the Senate with a simple majority vote under the rules of reconciliation, meaning Republicans would need to win over Democratic votes in an atmosphere where fired-up Democrats are in no mood to bail out their colleagues and help President Trump.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin provided a laughable answer to this conundrum last week, assuring lawmakers and the public that the plan to slash corporate taxes will “pay for itself with growth” and generate at least $2 trillion dollars—a promise even conservative economists characterize as fuzzy math and wishful thinking.

What options are left? The one concrete proposal on the table to raise revenue, a border adjustment tax (BAT), has come under fire from those fearing constituent anger over higher prices at grocery stores, Walmarts, and gas stations.

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

And the one proposal aimed at reducing the tax of middle class working Americans, the elimination of the payroll tax, is already drawing the ire of the AARP and other advocacy groups who note that this would imperil the Social Security trust fund.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2olL3NG

[rtscrndr53704]

Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

After a two-weeks of being berated by their constituents at raucous town halls—and watching Democrats come close to flipping two solidly red districts in Kansas and Georgia—members of Congress return to DC Monday. With few legislative accomplishments under their belts so far, they now face a government funding deadline, a debt ceiling increase, demands from the White House to take another swing at repealing Obamacare, and the daunting, likely impossible task of overhauling the tax code by August.

Though Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House, deep divisions on all these issues remain, exacerbated by weeks of finger-pointing and inter-party threats in the wake of the health care bill’s embarrassing demise. And the closer it gets to the 2018 midterm elections, the more cautious members in swing districts will become about sticking their neck out to vote for controversial or unpopular bills.

“They have a lot to accomplish, but it’s a big question mark whether they’ll be able to do it,” said Dan Scandling, who worked as a senior staffer for GOP lawmakers for nearly 25 years. “At some point the Republicans have to start delivering, or their base will start showing up at their town halls saying, ‘Hey, you for years said if we gave you a Republican House and Senate you’d get things done. What’s the holdup?'”

Because members face enormous pressure to at least appear that they are making progress on the people’s business, we can expect to see a great deal of stalling, finger-pointing, earnest press conferences, bouts of secret negotiations, and other forms of political theater in the months ahead. For Republicans, the show must go on.

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

Under President Obama, each government funding and debt ceiling deadline offered Republicans a fresh opportunity to engage in brinksmanship and win concessions on red-meat issues like private school vouchers and abortion. This practice peaked in 2013, when Republicans triggered a two-week government shutdown over the implementation of Affordable Care Act.

This time around, despite breathless news reports that some members of both parties and the Trump administration are gunning for a shutdown showdown, Republican leaders acknowledge they have zero incentive to shutter a government under their own unified control. To do so would be a self-own for the ages.

“With a Republican House, Republican Senate and Republican administration, we don’t want to stumble into a shutdown,” warned Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee currently drafting the budget.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

And with several Republicans publicly declaring they won’t vote for any short-term budget—out of concern it will hurt the military’s ability to plan ahead—GOP leaders know they will need Democratic votes in order to get anything to the president’s desk. This leverage has allowed Democrats to lay down several red lines.

“Our position has been crystal clear,” Matthew Dennis, an aide for the House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY), told TPM. “There are several poison pill riders that the President wants, and they are articulating those priorities to Republicans in Congress. But we will not provide any money to fund the border wall. We won’t agree to defunding Planned Parenthood or Sanctuary Cities, or underfunding any critical domestic programs.”

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Dennis said negotiations “in good faith” took place over the congressional recess between Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate. But the White House  threw a wrench into the process over the weekend by insisting that the budget include billions in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and for hiring more Border Patrol and ICE officers.

“We want wall funding. We want [immigration] agents. Those are our priorities,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told the Associated Press. President Trump’s year-long campaign promise that Mexico will pay for the wall—which even top Republicans dismissed as a fantasy—has turned into vague assurances of eventual reimbursement.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

Despite this White House bluster, Republicans in Congress do not seem eager to push for these demands if doing so would risk a shutdown on their watch. As Rep. Davis (R-IL) told CNN on Friday when asked about the border wall funding: “I don’t think there’s any appetite for a shutdown.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has previously vowed to block any new funding for what he calls a “pointless wall,” boasted last week that negotiations over recess were “so far, so good” for Democrats.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a “one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

After the first version of GOP health care bill died a humiliating death in March—pulled from the floor minutes before a vote that would have defeated the legislation—top Republicans vowed to stop setting “arbitrary deadlines” and to be more transparent the next time around.

“One of the lessons we learned from this process is to let it be slow and deliberate and give everyone a chance to try to bring their ideas to the table,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee told reporters before recess.

But under pressure from a White House desperate for a tangible victory within the largely meaningless “first 100 days” window, the GOP is gearing up for another rushed vote on a revised bill drafted behind closed doors over the recess.

Though no legislative text has been unveiled and no whip count taken to gauge support, some members made noises last week about a brand new amendment they say can bring the House GOP’s warring factions together and get the struggling health care bill across the finish line.

This latest act in the GOP’s Kabuki health care drama has played out much like the previous amendments and deals they have rolled out—which similarly have done nothing to bridge the fundamental ideological divide between lawmakers who believe the government has no business at all in the health care sector and those who believe the government has a responsibility to care for the sick and the vulnerable.

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Almost immediately after the latest deal was announced, a proposal to allow states to easily opt of Obamacare’s cost protections for people with pre-existing conditions, lawmakers were tamping down expectations—telling TPM that it is not clear the measure could garner the 216 votes necessary to pass the House. Others say even the prospects of a vote on the bill this week are dim.

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

“They have to show they’re trying to move the ball forward,” Scandling said. “It’s kind of like a Hail Mary pass in my opinion, but it’s important to the Speaker and President to get a win on the board.”

Tax morass

The drawn out song-and-dance around health care, the budget, the border wall, and sanctuary cities may be a mere opening act to President Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans plans to tackle an overhaul of the U.S. tax code.

For decades, the raison d’etre for the GOP has been cutting taxes, and the Trump administration came into office promising to deliver on this by Congress’ August recess. But after watching a Hill Republicans’ seven-years-long battle cry to repeal Obamacare collapse in a just a few weeks, hopes for meeting the August deadline have faded.

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

Again, as with health care, Republicans have not yet addressed some basic hurdles. For one, will Republicans who have for years decried the ballooning federal deficit support the deep tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that would add an estimated $6.2 trillion dollars to that deficit?

“If you don’t have a savings, it can’t move forward,” Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told TPM before leaving DC for recess. “In a conference that doesn’t like deficits, you have to have a pay-for. If all you do is cut taxes, there’s the question of the pay-for and our $20 trillion in debt.”

Without a revenue generator, Republicans may only be able to propose a very modest tax cut, though this will do little to inspire lawmakers desperate for a tangible victory to show their constituents ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

Additionally, any plan that increases the deficit over the next decade can’t pass the Senate with a simple majority vote under the rules of reconciliation, meaning Republicans would need to win over Democratic votes in an atmosphere where fired-up Democrats are in no mood to bail out their colleagues and help President Trump.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin provided a laughable answer to this conundrum last week, assuring lawmakers and the public that the plan to slash corporate taxes will “pay for itself with growth” and generate at least $2 trillion dollars—a promise even conservative economists characterize as fuzzy math and wishful thinking.

What options are left? The one concrete proposal on the table to raise revenue, a border adjustment tax (BAT), has come under fire from those fearing constituent anger over higher prices at grocery stores, Walmarts, and gas stations.

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

And the one proposal aimed at reducing the tax of middle class working Americans, the elimination of the payroll tax, is already drawing the ire of the AARP and other advocacy groups who note that this would imperil the Social Security trust fund.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2olL3NG

[porchenclose10019]

Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

After a two-weeks of being berated by their constituents at raucous town halls—and watching Democrats come close to flipping two solidly red districts in Kansas and Georgia—members of Congress return to DC Monday. With few legislative accomplishments under their belts so far, they now face a government funding deadline, a debt ceiling increase, demands from the White House to take another swing at repealing Obamacare, and the daunting, likely impossible task of overhauling the tax code by August.

Though Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House, deep divisions on all these issues remain, exacerbated by weeks of finger-pointing and inter-party threats in the wake of the health care bill’s embarrassing demise. And the closer it gets to the 2018 midterm elections, the more cautious members in swing districts will become about sticking their neck out to vote for controversial or unpopular bills.

“They have a lot to accomplish, but it’s a big question mark whether they’ll be able to do it,” said Dan Scandling, who worked as a senior staffer for GOP lawmakers for nearly 25 years. “At some point the Republicans have to start delivering, or their base will start showing up at their town halls saying, ‘Hey, you for years said if we gave you a Republican House and Senate you’d get things done. What’s the holdup?'”

Because members face enormous pressure to at least appear that they are making progress on the people’s business, we can expect to see a great deal of stalling, finger-pointing, earnest press conferences, bouts of secret negotiations, and other forms of political theater in the months ahead. For Republicans, the show must go on.

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

Under President Obama, each government funding and debt ceiling deadline offered Republicans a fresh opportunity to engage in brinksmanship and win concessions on red-meat issues like private school vouchers and abortion. This practice peaked in 2013, when Republicans triggered a two-week government shutdown over the implementation of Affordable Care Act.

This time around, despite breathless news reports that some members of both parties and the Trump administration are gunning for a shutdown showdown, Republican leaders acknowledge they have zero incentive to shutter a government under their own unified control. To do so would be a self-own for the ages.

“With a Republican House, Republican Senate and Republican administration, we don’t want to stumble into a shutdown,” warned Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee currently drafting the budget.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

And with several Republicans publicly declaring they won’t vote for any short-term budget—out of concern it will hurt the military’s ability to plan ahead—GOP leaders know they will need Democratic votes in order to get anything to the president’s desk. This leverage has allowed Democrats to lay down several red lines.

“Our position has been crystal clear,” Matthew Dennis, an aide for the House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY), told TPM. “There are several poison pill riders that the President wants, and they are articulating those priorities to Republicans in Congress. But we will not provide any money to fund the border wall. We won’t agree to defunding Planned Parenthood or Sanctuary Cities, or underfunding any critical domestic programs.”

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Dennis said negotiations “in good faith” took place over the congressional recess between Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate. But the White House  threw a wrench into the process over the weekend by insisting that the budget include billions in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and for hiring more Border Patrol and ICE officers.

“We want wall funding. We want [immigration] agents. Those are our priorities,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told the Associated Press. President Trump’s year-long campaign promise that Mexico will pay for the wall—which even top Republicans dismissed as a fantasy—has turned into vague assurances of eventual reimbursement.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

Despite this White House bluster, Republicans in Congress do not seem eager to push for these demands if doing so would risk a shutdown on their watch. As Rep. Davis (R-IL) told CNN on Friday when asked about the border wall funding: “I don’t think there’s any appetite for a shutdown.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has previously vowed to block any new funding for what he calls a “pointless wall,” boasted last week that negotiations over recess were “so far, so good” for Democrats.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a “one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

After the first version of GOP health care bill died a humiliating death in March—pulled from the floor minutes before a vote that would have defeated the legislation—top Republicans vowed to stop setting “arbitrary deadlines” and to be more transparent the next time around.

“One of the lessons we learned from this process is to let it be slow and deliberate and give everyone a chance to try to bring their ideas to the table,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee told reporters before recess.

But under pressure from a White House desperate for a tangible victory within the largely meaningless “first 100 days” window, the GOP is gearing up for another rushed vote on a revised bill drafted behind closed doors over the recess.

Though no legislative text has been unveiled and no whip count taken to gauge support, some members made noises last week about a brand new amendment they say can bring the House GOP’s warring factions together and get the struggling health care bill across the finish line.

This latest act in the GOP’s Kabuki health care drama has played out much like the previous amendments and deals they have rolled out—which similarly have done nothing to bridge the fundamental ideological divide between lawmakers who believe the government has no business at all in the health care sector and those who believe the government has a responsibility to care for the sick and the vulnerable.

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Almost immediately after the latest deal was announced, a proposal to allow states to easily opt of Obamacare’s cost protections for people with pre-existing conditions, lawmakers were tamping down expectations—telling TPM that it is not clear the measure could garner the 216 votes necessary to pass the House. Others say even the prospects of a vote on the bill this week are dim.

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

“They have to show they’re trying to move the ball forward,” Scandling said. “It’s kind of like a Hail Mary pass in my opinion, but it’s important to the Speaker and President to get a win on the board.”

Tax morass

The drawn out song-and-dance around health care, the budget, the border wall, and sanctuary cities may be a mere opening act to President Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans plans to tackle an overhaul of the U.S. tax code.

For decades, the raison d’etre for the GOP has been cutting taxes, and the Trump administration came into office promising to deliver on this by Congress’ August recess. But after watching a Hill Republicans’ seven-years-long battle cry to repeal Obamacare collapse in a just a few weeks, hopes for meeting the August deadline have faded.

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

Again, as with health care, Republicans have not yet addressed some basic hurdles. For one, will Republicans who have for years decried the ballooning federal deficit support the deep tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that would add an estimated $6.2 trillion dollars to that deficit?

“If you don’t have a savings, it can’t move forward,” Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told TPM before leaving DC for recess. “In a conference that doesn’t like deficits, you have to have a pay-for. If all you do is cut taxes, there’s the question of the pay-for and our $20 trillion in debt.”

Without a revenue generator, Republicans may only be able to propose a very modest tax cut, though this will do little to inspire lawmakers desperate for a tangible victory to show their constituents ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

Additionally, any plan that increases the deficit over the next decade can’t pass the Senate with a simple majority vote under the rules of reconciliation, meaning Republicans would need to win over Democratic votes in an atmosphere where fired-up Democrats are in no mood to bail out their colleagues and help President Trump.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin provided a laughable answer to this conundrum last week, assuring lawmakers and the public that the plan to slash corporate taxes will “pay for itself with growth” and generate at least $2 trillion dollars—a promise even conservative economists characterize as fuzzy math and wishful thinking.

What options are left? The one concrete proposal on the table to raise revenue, a border adjustment tax (BAT), has come under fire from those fearing constituent anger over higher prices at grocery stores, Walmarts, and gas stations.

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

And the one proposal aimed at reducing the tax of middle class working Americans, the elimination of the payroll tax, is already drawing the ire of the AARP and other advocacy groups who note that this would imperil the Social Security trust fund.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2olL3NG