Tax Reform -- Redux

As we move closer to a Senate vote on tax reform, the Democrats demagogue the issue, claiming as they always do, that reform will ONLY benefit the rich, that tax reductions will do nothing to spur economic growth, that 1.9 percent growth of GDP (a staple under the previous administration) is the new normal and that all calculations should be based on that pathetic economic number, and most astonishingly, that tax reform will increase the debt (this concern presented by a party that doubled the national debt in eight years. The Democrat's trained hamsters in the media parrot their masters lies with a fake news blitz that is as dishonest as it is misleading.

Investor's Business Daily comments:

The Senate tax bill would reduce income taxes for people at every income level — even those who don't pay taxes. That's the official conclusion of the Joint Committee on Taxation. So why are Monday's headlines screaming that the tax cuts would make the poor much worse off?

"Senate GOP tax bill hurts the poor more than originally thought, CBO finds." That's the headline in the Washington Post describing a Congressional Budget Office report released on Sunday.

The story claims that the "Republican tax plan gives substantial tax cuts and benefits to Americans earning more than $100,000 a year, while the nation's poorest would be worse off." Later, the Post story talks about the bill's "harsh impact on the poor."

This conveniently fits with the Democrats' evergreen talking point on tax cuts — that they benefit the rich at the expense of the poor. But is it true?

Not. At. All.

The Dems do understand one thing correctly. When an political debate involves details and tables of numbers, facts and figures, it's always a good strategy to appeal to emotion. Their class warfare argument, even though it is a lie, resonates with many, particularly when it is amplified by the media. The GOP response is typically a rational discussion of details and a fact-based argument of the actual consequences of the legislation. Sadly, that takes the listener into the weeds, eyes glaze over, and the Dems win. When you couple this with a group of #NeverTrump GOP Senators, the end result is in jeopardy.

The reality if that the Dems claims are lies. Here's a table from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation.



You'll note that every income group benefits from tax reduction—every one. Sure the "rich" have higher absolute savings, even as their tax rate stays the same, but that's because they pay a disproportionate percentage of all income taxes. Yeah, I Know, that's the weeds, so the Dems arguments tend to prevail.

Maybe the GOP strategy should be to argue based on emotions: How about: "Who knows how to spend your money more wisely, you or the government?" Or maybe: "The Democrats want to take more money out of your paycheck. You're good with that, right?" Or possibly: "The swamp need fertilizer and it'll find it in your wallet."

Unfortunately, none of this matters when GOP senators care more about their fragile egos and their hatred of Donald Trump that they do about the economic future of the country.