Senator Tim Scott was obviously tapped to sell the Republican tax plan to African Americans. It’s pretty surprising that Scott got this role because I thought that Omarosa’s only job was black outreach. But Trump and the Republicans in Congress assumed that Senator Scott can relate to black people because he’s black just like Trump thought surgeon Ben Carson was better suited to be HUD Director instead of Surgeon General.
So in some corner of Congress, a small team of white people who obviously don’t know any black people came up with the public relations campaign and the hashtag #KeepYoMoney. That’s right. #KeepYoMoney. It’s not a Dave Chappell sketch; it’s an actual campaign with a real, live black man holding a piece of paper with #KeepYoMoney written on it so it looks like the prop budget was 50 cents. Clearly, everything this public relations team learned about black people they got from In Living Color.
I have to wonder how far in the sunken place Senator Scott was to think that this was a good career move for him. He’s a United States Senator ― not Flavor Flav. I’m surprised they didn’t send him out with a giant clock and a hat on backwards. The ad even has a soundtrack that was lifted from a bad porn movie or the Breakin 2 Electric Boogaloo movie. The only thing that could have made this ad worse is if Senator Scott actually started rapping and said “Where the white women at?” The only explanation I can think of that would make an African American United States Senator embarrass himself like this is that Melania is off camera stirring a tea cup hypnotizing him.
During the campaign, Donald Trump told black folks how he felt about them with his many offensive comments like “they’re living in hellholes” and “what have they go to lose?” I get that Trump’s not a fan of black people, and that’s putting it mildly. But what about the rest of the people on his staff or anyone in the Republican Party for that matter. No one saw this video and said, “maybe we shouldn’t be telling black people to KeepYoMoney.” What’s next, singing slaves promoting health care reform?
I get that a tax plan catered to the top one percent of Americans is a tough sell. For all his claims of being the populist president, Trump and the Republicans’ plans do nothing for the poor or middle class. They claim that the estate tax helps farmers but only 80 estates classified as “farmers” would be affected by an estate tax. They will cut the corporate rate from 35 percent to 20 percent. Analysts claim that 50 percent of the net tax cuts would go to the top one percent of earners with no impact on middle class families. And despite all the evidence, Trump and his minions are still pushing trickle-down economics, but what you are feeling isn’t money raining down.
Again, I am not surprised that Republicans are trying to pull this nonsense. When they get in power, we already know deficits don’t matter. Spending is great when it’s on the military or with the Trump administration on private jets to see the eclipse. Budget tightening is for the little people and when a black man is president.
Either way, there is no reason that Senator Scott should have allowed himself to be used this way. There is no amount of money that would compensate for this level of Uncle Tomfoolery. As for the tax plan and #KeepYoMoney, in the words on the great philosopher George W. Bush “Fool me once, shame on ― shame on you. Fool me ― you can’t get fooled again.”
