This just in: If you believe that Trickle-Down Economics is a sound theory that actually works, stop reading now since this simply written blog is about to fly right over your 3rd grade level of economics.

Let’s set the stage…

When the Republican Party took over the House and the Senate, they changed the way their economic policies are graded.

Under Democrats, a policy would have its outcome predicted in advance. If the results came out different, there would be some “splaining” to do. Congress would have to admit that their actions were wrong and promise to do better in the future.

Under Republicans, this was changed to “Dynamic Scoring.” This means they could make a prediction about an outcome (as before) but now, they could readjust their prediction about the outcome once it actually happened. It allowed them to rewrite history so they would always be right.

Step 2 was to pass a massive tax cut for the rich.

The predictions in advance said everyone would get huge tax breaks and the economy would grow upwards of 5% per year. This is a huge rate of growth. Republicans also said that the increased economic activity would easily pay off the predicted multi-trillion dollar debt that would build up if things didn’t work out.

The result of the tax break is clear. Almost no one got a raise unless they were already rich. The debt is soaring out of control at a record pace. And as every educated economist predicted, our economy is heading into a recession now that the short term benefit of the tax break have passed.

These results are like a billboard on every highway in America that says, “Republicans have no idea what they are doing!!”

Now…let’s get back to that Dynamic Scoring…

I just read a headline that says “Even Republicans are fearing that the economy will have ZERO growth this year…”

But wait! There’s more.

According to Republicans, the reason growth will drop to ZERO is not because of the Tax Scam. No…they are saying, “We were right about the tax break causing huge growth. That is going just as expected…except the Government Shutdown is countering that growth so it will be ZERO. Thank goodness we passed that tax scam/bill.”

See what they are doing? They are acting as if the tax cut worked so the Republicans will bear no blame for the coming recession. Also, by blaming the shutdown, they hope to smear a least of bit of the blame on Democrats.

This also explains why Mitch McConnell is as interested in keeping this shutdown going as Trump. Trump is having a tantrum. Mitch is trying to hide his role in the coming recession.

So there you have it – Why the government is shutdown.

Yes, there are other reasons: (1) Russia told Trump to shut it down, (2) Trump needs a distraction from the Mueller probe.

I was going to add that Trump needed a distraction from the Cohen testimony but witness tampering by the President of the United States put an end to that threat.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim