Until the bill is released, its details are being kept secret. The timetable for passage is clear, though. Both the Senate and House plan to vote on their versions of the bill by Friday, Nov. 17, the start of their Thanksgiving breaks. This gives the House 10 working days to fully read, review, amend and reflect on a bill they’ve yet to see, then fully debate and vote on it. The Senate will have 10 percent more time: 11 working days.

Assuming both chambers meet their self-imposed deadlines, Congress will then have three post-Thanksgiving weeks to reconcile and approve a final bill before ending their work year Dec. 14.

Add it all up, and congressional Republicans will use their political muscle to push through a profoundly important, multitrillion dollar bill at breakneck speed, with just 45 calendar days elapsing between when the bill is introduced and signed into law.

How unusual is this? Here’s a local perspective. Two, actually. In 2000 it took Congress 353 days to pass and sign into law the bill renaming the federal courthouse on Simpson Street after Cliff Hansen. Fourteen years later it took 315 days to pass and sign the bill that allowed Teton County to buy back that building for $600,000, culminating a process begun in the 1980s. The transfer process’s 315 days was seven times longer than Congress is giving itself to consider the tax bill; its $600,000 price tag is 0.00004 percent of the $1.5 trillion the tax bill will add to the national debt.

What’s going on here? Congress seems afraid to have the tax bill scrutinized, analyzed or otherwise evaluated. This raises an obvious question: Why? There are lots of potential reasons, but Occam’s Razor tells us the right answer is usually the simplest. In this case, it’s probably the same reason I and most people lie about and hide things. Guilt. Shame. Embarrassment. Fear. The knowledge we’ve done something wrong.

Congress’ interminable hearings are maddening, but have a noble purpose — ensuring any proposed action is well-understood before being voted upon. To me, Congress’ willingness to run roughshod over its sacrosanct processes and its desire to avoid public scrutiny of the tax bill are signs of guilt, shame, and embarrassment as clear as the reek of alcohol and marijuana wafting off me when I lied to my mother about partying in high school.

That noted, how might the tax bill affect Teton County? The secrecy and hypercompressed timeframe make substantive analysis impossible, but a few general observations are possible.

As of this writing, all we really know about the plan is what was contained in a “framework” document released in late September. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has done the most comprehensive analysis of the framework, and Table 1 shows its findings. The basic takeaway? If you’re making under $700,000 or so per year, you won’t see much tax savings — perhaps 1 percent of your gross income; almost assuredly less. Critically, there’s also a chance your tax bill will actually go up. If you’re making more than $700,000, though, you’ll likely see a significant savings: 4 percent or more.

The political rationale underlying the tax cuts is that Republicans in Congress need to satisfy their wealthy donors. Since this rationale won’t fly with the general public, though, a theoretical economic rationale is also being offered: Giving money to the wealthy will produce a trickle-down economic boom, one sufficient to offset the tax cuts’ multitrillion dollar price tag.

There’s a problem with the trickle-down rationale, though: It’s wrong. Most models show any resulting boom will be modest at best, far too small to offset the cost of the cuts. Real-world experience makes the same case. For example, Kansas tried doing something similar, and its public finances are a disaster.

So what will happen locally? Unfortunately, available income data don’t shine much direct light on how the tax bill will affect Teton County. That noted, there are a few clues.

One is that, as the table shows, around 17 percent of all Teton County taxpayers fall into the highest 10 percent of all U.S. income earners. What we can’t tell is how many fall into the nation’s top 1 percent or top 0.1 percent of earners.

Another clue is that, as Graph 1 shows, in 2015 the mean income for all Wyoming households earning $200,000 or more was $735,029. Without Teton County, this figure was 30 percent lower: $511,656. Why? Because in 2015 the 1,560 Teton County households reporting an income of $200,000 or more had a mean household income of $1,985,057, nearly three times the statewide average.

In contrast the mean household income for Teton County households with income of under $200,000 was $35,860, the lowest of any Wyoming county and 55 times lower than the mean for those Teton County households making $200,000 or more. Hence our income inequality, the nation’s greatest.

Do a bit more math and the situation shown in Graph 2 emerges. In 2015, Teton County households earning $200,000 or more accounted for 87 percent of the county’s total income. Without Teton County the statewide figure was 26 percent.

Two basic takeaways emerge from these clues, the second dripping with irony.

First, if Congress and President Donald Trump manage to enact a tax cut bill along the lines of their September framework, Teton County will disproportionately benefit. Because almost all of the tax cuts will go to our already-wealthy residents, though, it is highly unlikely the county as a whole will enjoy any demonstrable economic boost.

The foundation of the second takeaway is that, in 2016, 68 percent of Wyoming’s voters opted for Trump, the highest percentage of any state.

Then consider this. If the tax cuts occur, Teton County’s disproportionate wealth means it will be the only one of Wyoming’s 23 counties to enjoy any real bump in personal income. Our congressional delegation may argue otherwise, but their arguments will likely be based on platitudes or debunked theories.

The irony? Teton was the only Wyoming county to vote against Trump, opposing him 2 to 1.

Worse still, many of Trump’s supporters in other counties will be doubly punished because the tax cuts benefitting Teton County’s wealthy will be paid for in part by cutting back on the social services helping less-affluent people across the state.

Looked at through that lens, the impending tax cuts are a magnificently audacious bait and switch, a grift suckering in voters by pretending to have their backs, then leaving them high and dry once they’ve voted. The key to understanding the grift? Who wins and who loses from the tax cuts. And as any huckster will tell you, scamming someone is best done quickly before your mark has a chance to figure out what’s going on.