Polar vortex, vapid politics and now tax time. How are locals feeling toward their big tax cuts this year? That few extra hundred bucks, if you’re lucky, has been drained away months ago due to out of control drug prices, ballooning housing costs, meager Social Security COLA or expensive C-clamps to prevent exploding heads. Never mind all that. There’s good news for some Americans, the upper class and perversely wealthy.

• Since the tax plan passed, a study found, companies spent 37 times more money on stock buybacks than on bonuses or increased wages for workers.

• In 2025, a quarter of tax benefits will go to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, and 66 percent will go to the top 20 percent of earners, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

• A sizable 84 percent of all stocks owned by Americans are held by the wealthiest 10 percent of households, major beneficiaries to tax plan.

So as you trudge off through snow and cold to another week of low-wage work, keep your spirits high. Not all is lost. The wealthy have our backs. With all those billions in tax benefits, they’ll make sure you have a warm pair of socks, mittens, a brace for that stiff upper lip, an illusion of the American dream and a red MAGA panhandling hat — necessities for the hardworking, subservient undignified Midwest working class.

Patrick Cunningham

Twin Lakes