This is a great companion piece to the other article I just commented on: https://reallyread.it/articles/-the-new-york-times-company/every-tax-cut-and-tax-increase-in-the-house-gop-bill-and-what-it-would-cost

For the first time (ever?!) I'm actually concerned about speed - how quickly the government is moving on this stuff.

Maybe I'm oversimplifying, but it seems like Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are unabashedly asking the entire population of the United States to take a leap of faith with them. Adding to the craziness, we all know that they're under insane amounts of political pressure to merely get something - anything, basically - done ASAP.

These two quotes:

In an interview on Friday, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said that “we’re confident that the $1.5 trillion gap would be filled” by economic growth.

Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin insisted last week that the House bill would not add to the deficit, even after an analysis by the independent Tax Foundation, which uses a model that tends to find large growth effects from tax cuts, found that the bill would add $1 trillion to deficits over a decade. / “We believe that we’re going to be fine on that,” Mr. Ryan said. “We believe that when you look at other analysis, whether it’s going to be Treasury or the rest, that we’re right there in the sweet spot, with economic growth that gives us more revenue with where we need to be.”

Here's what I see: Blinded by the need to do something, they are basically doing anything.

Republicans are supposed to be the voice of reason with respect to balancing budgets and avoiding dangerous deficits/debt. (Right? Or am I oversimplifying?) In a weird way, it might even put me at ease if they just came along and said, "Now is the time for debt. Let's invest heavily in corporations." Instead, it seems like they're banking on the fact that nobody will have the time or interest to get caught up on what's actually going on.