Right slips through amendment to Trump tax bill to begin drilling arctic refuge

Donald Trump, according to pundits, has had his first ‘achievement’ in the passing of his bill to cut taxes – a bill that many senators admit their billionaire and corporate donors threatened to withdraw their donations if they voted against it. That this is an ‘achievement’ is no surprise with a president as dire and self-interested as Trump.

But to add insult to injury, right-wingers took the opportunity to add an amendment to a bill they knew was likely to pass – to allow oil and gas companies to start drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, as a senator pointed out:

Oil drilling has, of course, absolutely nothing to do with tax legislation – but in the US, it’s common practice for politicians to add unconnected amendments to a bill to either get their pet amendment into law, or to discourage other politicians from supporting something they want to see defeated.

The fact that right-wingers used a bill that will put huge amounts of cash into the pockets of the richest at the expense of the poor and the middle class to open up huge – and hugely important – tracts of previously-protected artic land for corporate profits at the expense of the wildlife and the planet speaks volumes for the mentality of the right.

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