Don't expect him to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but The Woodlands' own U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady has become something of a celebrity - at least for Washington, D.C.

The Republican chair of the House Ways and Means Committee has been making dozens of media appearances and his planned Tuesday committee hearing on tax reform is the closest thing that Congress has to a blockbuster event.

You don't have to wait for the Lifetime biopic to know the next chapter - Brady forgets his hometown roots. The Woodlands representative is pushing tax reform proposal that levies a $1 trillion tax on international imports. In Texas alone, businesses would see a 93 percent hike in the total taxes they pay, according to a study by the right-wing advocacy group Americans for Prosperity.

No other state has benefited more from the boom in international trade. Houston's refineries rely on heavy crude from Mexico and overseas. San Antonio automotive factories fit into a transnational supply chain. Rio Grande towns and Gulf Coast ports are clogged with trucks in a teeming mass of cross-border commerce.

Taxing trade in a state like Texas is like pitching veganism at the Rodeo - an idea so dumb you've gotta wonder if there's some ulterior motive.

Well, here's that motive: Brady needs $1 trillion in revenue so he can cut taxes for corporations.

Our nation's corporate tax code is riddled with loopholes and exemptions - in 2014, nearly 90 percent of companies paid nothing in corporate income taxes. Policy experts across the spectrum agree that Congress needs to implement revenue-neutral updates. But Brady continues to insist that Texans bear the burden of reform.

It is part of a pattern that's playing out behind the scenes. While the headlines are dominated with news of Donald Trump obstructing an FBI investigation, leaking classified information to Russian officials, or ordering ketchup with his well-done steak, Congress has been slogging along to pass policies that give handouts to the wealthiest while squeezing middle-class families.

Just look at the much-ballyhooed American Health Care Act, or Trumpcare, which passed the House. The bill doesn't fully repeal Obamacare. It does, however, give $600 billion in tax cuts to the ultra-wealthy while eliminating health-care subsidies for middle-class families and slashing Medicaid for the poor. Trumpcare also allows insurance companies to deny people with preexisting conditions. Meanwhile, hospitals, doctors groups and health-care experts have been kept out of the conversation. That's because Trumpcare isn't about hospitals or doctors or health care - it is about cutting taxes for the rich.

Congress has also voted to make it easier for coal companies to dump pollution in rivers, to let major companies hide donations to foreign governments, and for internet service providers to sell your private information.

We're waiting for the bills that will make America great again - bills that grow workers' paychecks, bring down the cost of health care and make higher education more affordable. So far, Congress is just doing what you'd expect from a representative body filled with millionaires: More riches for the richest. More power for the already powerful.

There's no shortage of jokes about clueless Hollywood celebrities, but sometimes it feels like the Washington celebrities are the ones who have truly grown out-of-touch.