Thread: Senate Democrats falsely claim GOP tax plan will raise taxes for most working-class f

Senate Democrats falsely claim GOP tax plan will raise taxes for most working-class families

By Glenn Kessler November 2 at 3:00 AM

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

“On average, middle class families earning less than $86,000 would see a tax increase under the Republican ‘tax reform’ plan.”
— Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), in a tweet, Oct. 27

“The average tax increase on families nationwide earning up to $86,100 would be $794.00”
— Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.), in a tweet, Oct. 24

“Under GOP plan, U.S. families making ~$86k see avg tax increase of $794.”
— Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), in a tweet, Oct. 24

A reader asked whether Harris’s tweet was accurate. But when we looked into it, it turns out that many Democrats were tweeting the same talking point — that middle-class families would face an average tax increase under the GOP plan. The three tweets below are just a sampling.

On average, middle class families earning less than $86,000 would see a tax increase under the Republican “tax reform” plan.

— Kamala Harris (@SenKamalaHarris) October 27, 2017

The average tax increase on families nationwide earning up to $86,100 would be $794.00

— Senator Bob Casey (@SenBobCasey) October 24, 2017

It turns out this Twitter blizzard is the result of a bad game of telephone.

The Facts

We traced the talking point to a document put out by the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, essentially the communications arm of Senate Democrats. That document laid out a series of statistics, tailored for each individual state, that purported to show how damaging the evolving Republican tax plan would be for middle-class Americans.

That document had this line on each state page: “The average tax increase on families nationwide earning up to $86,100 would be $794, a significant burden for middle-class families.”

This factoid in turn was sourced to a report by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee. So we tracked that down.

That report had this line: “If enacted, the Republican tax reform proposal would saddle 8 million households that earn up to $86,100 with an average tax increase of $794 — a substantial expense for working families.”

Note the difference. The original report referred to 8 million households receiving a $794 tax increase. Somehow, when it got communicated down the line, that nuance was lost and it was translated into a talking point referring to all working-class families.

Latoya Veal, spokeswoman for the JEC Democrats, explained how the number was calculated. The staff took an estimate by the Tax Policy Center, based on the GOP’s “Unified Framework” released in September. The staff then focused on the households making under $86,100 — the bottom three quintiles of taxpayers — that would face a tax increase. Weighting the tax increase by the number of people in each quintile, the staff came up with an average tax hike of $794 for the people receiving a tax increase.

But notice the funny thing about this calculation: Only a small percentage (6.5 percent) of the nearly 122 million households in the bottom three quintiles will actually face a tax increase.

Meanwhile, more than 97 million (80 percent) will receive a tax cut. Doing the math the same way the JEC staff did, we come up with an average tax cut of about $450 for those 97 million households.

Indeed, at the far end of the chart, you will see that every quintile on average receives a tax cut — not a tax increase.

In any tax bill, there are going to be winners and losers. The top quintile receives the biggest average tax cut, both in dollars and change in after-tax income — but also has the largest percentage (32.3 percent) of households that will face a tax increase.

“There are different ways to approach the TPC estimates,” Veal said. “Key Republicans have been asked whether they could guarantee that no middle-class family will get a tax increase under their plan. Our calculation shows that some households — 8 million — making under $86,100 will receive an increase based on TPC’s estimates.”

By the time we contacted the DPCC about the error, The Fact Checker’s questions must have circulated.

“Once we realized that the original report could have been clearer, we updated it immediately,” a spokesman said. Now the updated report makes clearer that 8 million households could face a tax increase — though again it fails to acknowledge that most people would would have a tax cut.

The inaccurate tweets remain.

The Pinocchio Test

In their haste to condemn the GOP tax plan, Democrats have spread far and wide the false claim that families making less than $86,100 on average will face a hefty tax hike. Actually, it’s the opposite. Most families in that income range would get a tax cut. Any Democrat who spread this claim should delete their tweets and make clear they were in error.

Four Pinocchios

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.001015ff6d1e

DemoQuacks are liars on most topics related to business, jobs, taxes, economy and deficits. There's a few Republican liars in the mix as well, but the DemoQuacks are the worst by far. So everyone just be patient, let all the details and truth about the tax plan filter out and know that this version or something similar is the best that you can do with trying to fix an evil income tax to begin with. You can reduce the damage by reducing the corporate and business tax-through rates which this plan does. You can lessen the harm by reducing individual tax rates and increasing the personal deduction which this plan does. But you can not eliminate the evil of the income tax without repealing it entirely and replacing it with a voluntary consumption tax like the FairTax.

It's amazing that the Washington Post would write an article like this attacking the DemoQuacks for lying. Wonder why they did?

How would there be an increase with ZERO tax on the first $25,000 of income

Then DOUBLE the deduction to $24,000 for married and $12,000 for single

Then lower the tax bracket on top of that?

No wonder Democrat run cities and States are bankrupt and in disrepair, crime and poverty with no jobs.

Originally Posted by Beezer

How would there be an increase with ZERO tax on the first $25,000 of income

Then DOUBLE the deduction to $24,000 for married and $12,000 for single

Then lower the tax bracket on top of that?

Exactly. No one earning below $500,000 a year is going to see a tax increase unless they're in some funny little weird pocket of loophole scenarios and who cares about them? It's time they paid their "fair share".

Other ramifications are too complicated to discuss, but for example, by limiting the amount of property tax deductions to $10,000 a year will put pressure on local taxing agencies to stop taxing homes to fund education for illegal aliens in these high tax states like California and New York. This is a good thing!

Limiting the mortgage interest deduction to mortgages of $500,000 or less, means that homes worth $600,000 assuming a 20% down payment will not qualify for the interest deduction and will put some pressure on both interest rates and home prices to make homes and mortgages more affordable in expensive real estate areas. It will also encourage home builders to design and build smaller, less expensive, more efficient housing in these areas. These are all good things!!

The goal of this whole plan isn't really paying less taxes, the end game is to bring our industries and companies back home, encourage them to relocate back to the states and expand in the states and make it easier for small and pass through businesses here to expand their operations to create employment, good employment, to raise wages and benefits to reduce poverty, unemployment, underemployment and welfare spending. This is the right formula to achieve this larger goal. Are the details all set in stone? No, not yet, but that will be worked out in the House, then the Senate, then in Reconciliation. Disregard all the DemoQuack talk about deficits, because there won't be any related to this plan in a couple of years. Sure, there will be a drop in the first 2 years because that's how long it takes to bring a company back to the states or expand a company already here. There is a lead time of at least 2 years before the benefits of the policy can show financial effects, because of the lead-time required in site selection, design and construction, opening and training a new operation, normal time is from 3 to 5 years, so even if some take 5 years, as soon as the plan is law, they'll be zooming to achieve this as quickly as possible. I wish the corporate and pass-through rates were 15% like Trump asked for, but 20 and 25 will at least kick-start some of it and we'll all benefit, everyone will benefit from more jobs, higher incomes, greater personal deduction, less spending on welfare, lower deficits, less debt.

And soon, perhaps even during Trump's first term, depending on how the 2018 elections go, this group of Republicans will move to pass the FairTax or something very similar to repeal the evil income tax and abolish the IRS.

Even if the Property Tax is lowered to deduct it...they are STILL getting the Double Standard Deduction to make up for it!

Why should they get the Double and Full Property Tax Deduction? Whole point is to simplify, pay fair share, no loop holes.

Many people have no deductions.

Originally Posted by Beezer

Even if the Property Tax is lowered to deduct it...they are STILL getting the Double Standard Deduction to make up for it!

Why should they get the Double and Full Property Tax Deduction? Whole point is to simplify, pay fair share, no loop holes.

Many people have no deductions.

Exactly. You get it, Beezer!! Spread the word!!!

Hard to talk to a bunch of "rocks" on FB. People really have NO clue.

And for businesses to deduct the full depreciation on equipment in the 1st year is BIGLY for business expansion and jobs

Let the rich people keep some of their money...where the hell to people think all the charity money comes from? Business investment, entrepreneurs...buying high dollar equipment and spending money in our economy. Demoquacks have mush for brains.

Exactly!! There would be no Shriner's Hospital or St. Jude's Children's Hospital without rich people. There would be no jobs or good companies without rich people. But they should have to pay their "fair share" as long as we have an evil despicable income tax.

I wonder if Farmers will be buying more equipment to automate their farming...less need for ILLEGALS and their work visas.

Another reason to END DACA...no amnesty to 12 million people with no skills.

Add the 40 BILLION they send out of the country and put our people to work...keeping our money on our soil and back into our economy.

Mexico and Central America had better get their game plan on...your DACA people are coming home to roost and you had better use this opportunity to put them to work and improve your own economy!

So round up your cartels, your gangs and do what you will with them...the Gravy Train is OVER