Roskam's lasting legacy? Fiscal irresponsibility

It's a tough call but fiscal irresponsibility will be Congressman Peter Roskam's lasting legacy to the Illinois Sixth District. Whether he's retired this November or goes on to another 12 years or more, the financial ruin he helped author last year in his Tax Cuts and Jobs Act may well outlive his tenure, however long. In championing that bill Roskam abandoned any pretense of fiscal responsibility he raised every time the Obamaadministration sought to spend wisely on infrastructure, health care, education and environmental sanity. Roskam's imprint is all over the tax bill that has already added $1 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, with a 21% deficit increase already in fiscal 2018 versus fiscal 2017. But instead of investing in America, Roskam's foolish deficits are investing in the wealthyist Americans who form his base, with a few dollars reserved for the middle class voters he needs for re-election. Since he has nothing else to run on, Roskam has decided to double down on the 2017 bill by supporting the next version of irresponsible tax cuts known affectionately as 'Tax Reform 2.0' that will make permanent all of last year's tax cuts as well as the $10,000 cap on property taxes that was inserted merely to punish voters in primarily blue states such as Illinois. Roskam's reforms depend on a pyramid scheme of endless prosperity to prevent a financial collapse. Even a mild recession will cause a dramatic crisis which Roskam and company will use to cut the social safety net of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Peter Roskam has no record to run on regarding the environment, gun safety, education, health care, sane business regulation; indeed every issue of concern in the Sixth. He's become a One Trick Pony handing out a pittance in tax cuts to workers, while enriching the already rich to obscene levels. That is not a conservative agenda for America's wealth and resources. It is a radical roadmap to economic ruin.