The day before a major religious holiday—in this case, Easter—is usually not great for group gatherings as people are at home or in supermarkets preparing for their celebration.

When Ronald Reagan was elected, rich Republicans saw an opportunity to cut their taxes, but how do you sell to voters a massive redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich? The answer was to invent a new economic paradigm: Cut taxes for the rich, and they’ll reward you by giving you jobs. Reaganomics was born, and Republicans rejoiced. The prosperous period that followed was the result of massive deficit spending to fuel an enormous military buildup, but causation is not correlation, and the narrative that cutting taxes results in economic growth was enshrined in the Republican doctrine.

The 2016 election demonstrated—in a yuge way!—that conventional wisdom about American politics, especially the “rush to the center” and the notion of independent thought within parties, no longer applies.  Which is probably bad news for Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (CD-11) who has so far held on to his seat for a whopping 12 terms and parlayed himself into the chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee, one of the most powerful posts in the nation.

Whether sitting in the virtual parking lot that Route 80 becomes at “rush” hours, or in a rail car held up because of yet another derailment, New Jersey commuters are finding it more arduous to simply get to work.  And it looks like it’s about to become worse.

George H.W. Bush called Ronald Reagan’s theories “voodoo economics” and Reagan’s own budget director, David Stockman, also not exactly a flaming liberal, debunked “supply-side” or “trickle-down” economics as a pipe dream.

But in the ensuing decades, the notion that eliminating taxes on the wealthy, and on corporations, has become enshrined in the national conservative conscientious. And despite effects of those policies turning out to be as helpful to working people as unicorns flying over rainbows, GOP legislators continue to insist shifting more people’s money to fewer rich people is the tide that raises all boats.