The Psychology of Trump Voters: The Tax Edition
Voices of a Diverse America: May 14th, 2025: How Republicans Keep Screwing the Poor and Why They Keep Getting Away With It
When Congressman Gomez confronted the Republicans with their own damn numbers during that heated committee exchange, you could practically smell the bullshit excuses wafting through the air. Their tax plan—straight from their own fucking projections—shows people making under $15,000 facing a jaw-dropping 74.3% tax increase by 2031. Not a typo. Not a mathematical error. A deliberate fucking choice.
Let that sink into your gut for a minute. Seventy-four percent. While you're still picking your jaw up off the floor, consider that folks making $15,000-$30,000 get slapped with a 20.6% increase. Meanwhile, the champagne keeps flowing in the penthouses and country clubs where the real beneficiaries of Republican tax policy toast their good fortune.
The Republican staffer's response? Some technical mumbo-jumbo about "denominators" and "negative tax rates" that essentially translates to: "Yeah, we're absolutely screwing the poor, but we've got fancy math terms to make it sound complicated."
This isn't just cruel—it's a calculated, cold-blooded targeting of Americans who are already struggling to put food on rickety kitchen tables and keep the lights on in cramped apartments. The people who clean the toilets at congressional office buildings, who serve food at the Capitol cafeteria, who provide home care to our elderly—these are the Americans being hung out to dry.
The Historical Tax Scam: How We Got Here
This isn't new. It's the same fucking playbook Republicans have been running since Reagan's day, just with different covers slapped on it each time.
In the 1980s, "trickle-down economics" was the gilded lie they sold America. Cut taxes for the wealthy, they promised, and prosperity would rain down on everyone else like golden showers from heaven. What actually trickled down? Nothing but hardship and growing inequality.
The 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts? Same damn story. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that the top 1% of households received 38% of the benefits. You could almost hear the champagne corks popping on Wall Street.
Then came the crowning achievement: Donaldo Shitsburger's 2017 "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act." Despite promises it would help the middle class, the Congressional Budget Office eventually confirmed what many suspected: permanent big-dollar benefits for corporations and the wealthy, with temporary crumbs for everyone else—set to expire conveniently after election cycles passed.
When you look at the raw numbers across forty years of Republican tax policy, a pattern emerges so obvious it practically slaps you across the face: temporary minor cuts for lower income groups that eventually turn into increases, while the wealthy enjoy permanent breaks that grow more generous over time.
The Psychological Mindfuck: Why They Keep Getting Away With It
So here's the million-dollar question that makes economists and political scientists pull their hair out by the roots: Why do so many people making under $30,000 a year continue voting for the very bastards who are raising their taxes while cutting services they depend on?
The answer lies in a perfect psychological storm of misdirection, identity politics, and some of the most masterful propaganda this side of a Cold War spy novel.
First, there's the aspirational delusion. Many Americans don't vote based on their current economic situation—they vote based on where they fantasize they'll be someday. The "temporarily embarrassed millionaires" syndrome means a factory worker making $28,000 might oppose taxes on the wealthy because, goddammit, that'll be him someday after his brilliant business idea takes off.
Second is the deliberate confusion machine. Republican messaging muddles the waters by focusing on income tax rates while ignoring the full tax burden including payroll taxes, which hit lower-income Americans hardest. When Donny McFartsalot talks about "cutting taxes," people assume he means their taxes, not just his billionaire buddies'.
Third, and perhaps most potent, is the culture war smokescreen. While they're picking your pocket with one hand, they're waving a flag, Bible, or gun in your face with the other. The psychological redirection is brilliant in its cynicism: get voters so fired up about immigration, abortion, or whatever the outrage du jour is that they don't notice their economic self-interest being gutted like a fish.
The GOP's genius lies in making their voters feel seen culturally while being robbed economically. It's political sleight-of-hand that would make Harry Houdini stand up and slow clap.
The Real-World Impacts: Beyond Numbers
These aren't just abstract percentages on a chart. When Republicans raise taxes on those making under $30,000 while gutting services, real human suffering follows like night after day.
Picture Maria in rural Kentucky, working two jobs at $14 an hour, suddenly facing an 18.7% tax increase while her Medicaid gets slashed. Feel the knot in your stomach tighten when her son's asthma medication becomes unaffordable. Hear the rattle of her ancient car as it breaks down with no money for repairs.
Or consider James in Cleveland, making $27,000 stocking shelves overnight, choosing between paying his electric bill or filling his prescriptions because that 11.7% tax increase tipped his precarious budget into free-fall.
These tax policies create a visceral, physical pain. The constant cortisol flood from financial stress weakens immune systems, raises blood pressure, and shortens lives. Republican tax policy doesn't just hurt wallets—it fucking kills people through a thousand small cuts to their health and wellbeing.
The GOP knows this. They just don't give a damn as long as Donny McStinkface and Elon MicroTool get their tax breaks.
The Economic Fallacy: Trickle-Down's Zombie Life
The most infuriating part? We know this shit doesn't work. It has never worked. It will never work.
Kansas tried the ultimate Republican tax experiment under Governor Sam Brownback in 2012—massive tax cuts promising economic miracles. The result? Catastrophic budget shortfalls, gutted public services, and economic growth that lagged behind neighboring states. It was such a spectacular failure that Republicans in the Kansas legislature eventually rebelled and reversed the cuts.
Yet like a horror movie villain that refuses to die, trickle-down economics keeps coming back, lurching toward new victims with each election cycle. The reason is simple: it was never meant to work for most Americans. It was designed to work perfectly for the donor class that funds Republican campaigns.
As billionaire Warren Buffett plainly stated, "There's been class warfare going on for the last 20 years, and my class has won."
The Solution: Breaking the Cycle
So how do we escape this twisted cycle of economic abuse?
The first step is ripping off the blindfold and seeing the con for what it is. When Trump McShitface or any Republican talks about tax cuts, the immediate question must be: "Tax cuts for whom? And who pays the price?"
Second, Democrats need to speak in language that punches through the fog. Not just charts and policy papers, but gut-level truth about how Republican policies are emptying working-class wallets to fill billionaire bank accounts.
Third, we need to reshape the national conversation around taxes from "government taking your money" to "investing in our collective future." Roads, schools, healthcare, climate resilience—these aren't handouts; they're the backbone of a functioning society and economy.
Most critically, we need to understand that this isn't just about economics—it's about power. The wealth transferred upward through Republican tax policies buys political influence that perpetuates the cycle. Breaking it requires nothing less than a democratic rebellion against plutocracy.
The Path Forward: A New Tax Vision
What would an actually fair tax system look like? One that doesn't make people like Congressman Gomez's parents—working four to six jobs and never making more than $38,000—subsidize tax cuts for Turdbucket Trump and his golf buddies.
It would start by acknowledging a basic truth: a dollar means more to someone who has few of them than someone who has many. Progressive taxation isn't punishment for success; it's recognition of this fundamental reality.
It would close the loopholes that let the ultra-wealthy pay lower effective tax rates than teachers and firefighters. It would end the preferential treatment of investment income over labor income. It would ensure corporations actually pay their fair share instead of hiding profits offshore.
Most importantly, it would invest the resulting revenue in things that actually make life better for ordinary Americans: affordable housing, universal healthcare, quality education, clean energy infrastructure, and a social safety net worthy of the world's richest nation.
The Choice Before Us
We stand at a crossroads. Down one path lies more of the same: tax policies that funnel money upward while leaving everyone else fighting for scraps. Down the other lies the possibility of an economy that works for everyone, not just those who can afford $5,000-a-plate fundraisers.
The first step toward choosing the right path is seeing clearly what's happening. When Congressman Gomez confronted that Republican staffer with the naked truth of their tax plan, he did more than score political points—he pulled back the curtain on a decades-long con.
It's up to us to decide whether we'll keep falling for it.
Citations
Saez, E., & Zucman, G. (2022). "The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay." New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts Analysis. Cornell Law
Lesson in Tax Reform: Reagan
Awesome assessment and one of many reasons why all of us need to be all in on pushing against this regime at every opportunity possible.
The stupidity of people in the mid-lower / working class does not get cured. As comedian Ron White says, “you can’t fix stupid.” I say this having been one of those “future millionaire” delusional people who had a mid-life health crisis yank my sorry ass from dream-ville to reality in the here-and-now very fast, so don’t take offense, I’m calling myself what I was.
If you can avoid that kind of situation and still pull yourself into a frame of mind that doesn’t think of where you’ll be in the future, good for you - you beat the odds. I still know plenty of people from my previous jobs who are counting on that great business idea to pan out. It never does.