By Julia A. Seymour | October 24, 2018 9:10 PM EDT
Tax and spend liberals are at it again.
Although there were huge benefits to the 2017 tax cuts including a rise in take-home pay for a majority of American wage earners’ and hiring or investment expansions at hundreds of companies, many liberals are calling for tax hikes. Just don’t expect the networks to spell that out for voters.
Within months of the tax reform bill’s passage, Senate Democrats were calling for $1 trillion in tax hikes over 10 years. Americans for Tax Reform warned it would “wipe out the benefits of tax reform, which include larger paychecks, salary bonuses, pay raises, increased employee retirement contributions, and utility rate cuts.” Recently, liberals continued calling for “repeal” of the tax bill to give money to others.
Don’t think for a second that higher taxes would mean a lower deficit or national debt. Liberals want higher taxes so they can grow government programs, spend on infrastructure or give tax credits to specific income groups.
But a Nexis search for Democrats and taxes between March 1, and October 22, on the three broadcast evening news programs included no stories exposing Democratic politicians’ tax hike intentions. March was when Democrats in Congress released a tax plan promising tax hikes if their party became the majority again.
The networks certainly had opportunity. One CBS Evening News story on Oct. 9, indicated there was a difference on tax cuts between Democrat and Republican Arizona senate candidates without stating either position.
Another story from June 27, Evening News about Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ “stunning” primary upset included a quote from her criticizing the GOP tax cut, without informing viewers her wish list of programs would require massive tax hikes.
NBC Nightly News reported on Oct. 8, about the election battle in Texas between progressive Democrat Beto O’Rourke and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. In it, Cruz condemned higher taxes as bad for Texas, but the story did not include O’Rourke’s tax platform.
Unlike the networks, Bloomberg, Slate, CNBC and other media have reported Democrats’ calls for higher taxes.
Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris said she wants to repeal the GOP tax bill and tax “large banks” to pay for massive tax credits that left-wing Slate viewed as similar to a “universal basic income.”
Slate reported that she introduced legislation in October to give $500-a-month tax credits to families making less than $100,000 a year — the price tag would be $200 billion taxpayer dollars per year, according to Investor’s Business Daily. Harris is a “contender” for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, according to CNBC.
Similar proposals have been floated by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., CNBC reported. Rep. John Delaney, D-M.D. is one of the liberals who has called for raising the corporate tax rate. His preferred spending choice was infrastructure.
Bloomberg reported in August that Democrats trying to “retake control” were “campaigning against the tax cut.”
“There isn’t a formal list of agreed-upon tax policy changes, but some specific targets are emerging from discussing taking place within Democratic circles, including raising the corporate rate above 21 percent and changing the treatment of capital gains and carried interest,” said Bloomberg.
Although not yet agreed on proposals, many wanted to “target wealthy individuals and raise revenue” to finance programs like “Medicare-for-All.” New York Congressional candidate and Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of the loudest promoters of Medicare-for-all, but has a full wishlist that (if adopted) would cost taxpayers upwards of $40 trillion over 10 years.
Conservative research indicated the repeal of the tax cuts would harm the very people liberals are claiming they’ll help. The Heritage Foundation warned it would mean higher taxes “in every congressional district.” If repealed in 2020, “the average American household would have $26,906 less in take-home pay over the subsequent 10 years,” Heritage researchers wrote.
On Oct. 22, California billionaire Tom Steyer also chimed in for higher taxes, albeit for a different reason. Steyer, who has committed at least $120 million helping the left in the midterm elections wrote an op-ed for USA Today on Oct. 22, arguing Congress “should tax wealthy 1 percenters like me...” Why? Supposedly to combat “tax fraud” and ensure the wealthy “pay their share.’
Methodology: MRC Business searched Nexis for Democrat and taxes and “world news” or “nightly news” or “evening news” to find stories from the three evening news shows that could have reported Democratic plans for tax increases between March 1, and Oct. 22, as the midterm elections approached. None of the stories reported those plans for tax increases, including those that included left-wing politicians’ attacks on the GOP tax cut.
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More by Julia A. Seymour
She is the Assistant Managing Editor for the MRC's Business and Media Institute.
Original article
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