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The Congressional Budget Office says the Senate tax reform bill will hurt those making less than $30,000 within two years, those making less than $40,000 by 2021, and that most of us who make less than $75,000 per annum will be feeling the pain by 2027. Trump campaigned saying he was the candidate of the working people of this country: "The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer," he vowed in his inaugural address. Well, that was quick.
The Koch brothers put up the money to buy Time magazine but profess they will only be "passive investors." Hmmmm. I am guessing that they do not have a business plan for a profitable modern magazine which leaves only one reason to buy a magazine. Politico has the story.
At the Catholic Thing, Fr. Robert Imbelli writes on Sunday's Feast of the Christ the King. His comments on the need to move past a mere "notional" acceptance of a teaching to the "real" are very important. At Mass this past weekend, the preacher spoke about the need to love the poor concretely but then failed to mention the fact that our nation is at a tipping point of moral decency on the issue of immigration, which seems one of the more concrete applications of Matthew 25.
El Nuevo Dia offers a comparison of the current migration from Puerto Rico to that from Cuba in the 1980s. The parallels are alarming and concerning.
In the Nation, Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis talk about the multifaceted issue of justice and climate change, and how Tesla's union-busting tactics mean it can never be the poster company for justice. If you are in the market for an electric car, the Volt is union-made.
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Relatedly, Pope Francis could not address this weekend's meeting on labor at the Dicastery for Integral Human Development because he was traveling to Asia. The letter he sent also speaks to these multifaceted issues of justice and climate change. I will have more on this Wednesday.
A rare joint statement from the U.S. and Mexican bishops' conferences is out about NAFTA. I have not been shy in criticizing the U.S. bishops' conference, so it gives me great pleasure to praise this well-tuned statement.
At Politico, there is a look at Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his ambitions for his country. Those ambitions are vast, complicated, and fly in the face of powerful interests. The consequences of his effort will, however, determine much of the fate of the Mideast and the broader Muslim world.
[Michael Sean Winters covers the nexus of religion and politics for NCR.]
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