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Chelsea Clinton Responded To The Tax Bill Passing With Some Major Shade

by Lilli Petersen
Olivier Douliery / Getty Images // lya S. Savenok / Getty Images

Happy Holidays, the GOP just passed an incredibly unpopular tax bill. And while a lot of people are already tweeting about how unhappy they are about it, one response takes the cake. Chelsea Clinton's response to the tax bill passing is seriously shading Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.

In the early hours of Dec. 20, the Senate passed the Republican tax reform bill, the biggest overhaul of the United States tax code in over 30 years. And on Wednesday afternoon, the House reaffirmed its vote passing the bill, and the deal was done. It's President Donald Trump's first major legislative victory since he took office in late January, and at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, the president was thrilled. "It will be an incredible Christmas gift for hard-working Americans," he said.

However, that's not what the evaluations of the bill say. While Trump and Republicans are touting the bill as help for the middle class, the majority of benefits will ultimately go to the wealthy and corporations. By 2027, households earning more than $1 million a year would be getting almost 82 percent of the total benefits from the tax bill, according to NPR. In the meantime, by the same year, people and families who earn under $75,000 a year actually be paying more in taxes. And when it comes to corporations, they're reaping the benefits too — though the tax cuts for individuals eventually expire, the corporate tax rate is cut from 35 percent to 21 percent, and that's permanent. So, Merry Christmas millionaires and corporations!

Which is why Chelsea Clinton's tweet is such brilliant shade.

During President Trump's press conference after the bill passed Congress on Wednesday, she tweeted out a video of House Speaker Paul Ryan talking about the bill, with a reference to the anniversary of Ryan's favorite Christmas movie, It's A Wonderful Life.

For those who aren't 100 percent up to speed on their Christmas classics, It's A Wonderful Life is about a poor person getting screwed over by an unscrupulous rich Scrooge, which drives him to contemplate suicide. No, I'm serious. Holiday cheer, huh?

While the movie is known for its "the world would be a worse place without you!" plotline, the reason the main character needs to be shown that at all is because he's basically been driven to suicide. The villain of the James Stewart classic is Henry Potter, a wealthy businessman and landlord who gouges the people of the local town and uses his influence to try to put the main character, George, out of business. At one point in the movie, Potter literally finds the money George is going to use to save his business, and takes it so that the business will go under. When George goes to ask him for a loan, Potter suggests that George's life insurance policy means that he's worth more dead than alive.

Wow. Even the actual Scrooge never suggested Bob Cratchit should just take out a life insurance policy on Tiny Tim.

So referring to It's A Wonderful Life — and Ryan's love for a movie that depicts unscrupulous wealthy people ruining lives — after Congress passed a bill that many thought was gouging the poor and middle class to benefit the rich is, uh, pretty shady.

Of course, Clinton is known for her amazing, subtle wit on Twitter (as well as her unrelenting burns). She's come for Donald Trump, defended her mother, and just generally raised a skeptical eyebrow at a lot of the stuff the Republican party and its members have done over the past eleven months. So this is definitely in character — shady, shady character — for Clinton.

Thanks, Chels. Whatever you think of the tax bill itself, it's definitely a wonderful life when we have Twitter wit like this to enjoy.