Pull this out when you need to explain to folks that aren’t getting it.
Outside of Democrats and opponents to the Republican tax bill saying it will literally kill thousands of people, which is almost too stupid to debunk, here are the top three lies made about the GOP efforts for tax reform.
1) Ron Insana: “It is not a middle-class tax cut.”
On MSNBC Tuesday afternoon, CNBC contributor Ron Insana argued that the GOP tax bill isn’t a break for the middle class. Speaking with MSNBC host Chris Jansing, Insana said that Trump can’t make the argument six months from now that he helped out the middle class.
“I think every analysis so far, whether it’s a Joint Committee on Taxation, whether it’s a Tax Policy Center, shows the majority of the benefits going to the wealthiest 5 percent, 10 percent of the population, even the top 0.1 percent will benefit from this,” Insana explained. “There are all kinds of loopholes in the pass-through entity, the so-called LLC or other corporate provisions that were going to benefit others. Very difficult to figure out exactly what the loopholes are at the moment. I just got off the phone with my own accountant trying to understand in detail what this means. But it does not help individuals who are below $100,000. In fact, it probably doesn’t help individuals who are below $200,000, given the analysis we’ve seen thus far. It is not a middle-class tax cut.”
According to the Tax Policy Center (part of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution), which many regard as left-leaning, the GOP tax bill would reduce the tax burden on individuals and families of every income group in the country. Eighty percent of taxpayers will get a tax cut next year, meanwhile, less than 5 percent of taxpayers will see a tax increase of more than $10.
Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation came to a similar conclusion.
In some ways, Insana is right. It’s not a middle-class tax cut. It’s an every-class tax cut.