As Congress debates “one big, beautiful bill,” they need to consider the benefits of the 2017 tax cuts and the impact of not extending them. On Sunday, The American Thinker posted an article about the lies the media is publishing about the 2017 tax cuts.
The article reports:
Lie #1: Saying numerous independent analyses have shown anything. There is not one independent analysis that could have shown what they say in the paragraph.
Lie #2: Saying it was skewed for the rich. Every taxpayer benefited, and the poor and middle class got bigger percentage reductions than the rich. The rich got penalized greatly with the limits on state and local tax deductions. The rich pay a bigger share of taxes than they ever have.
Lie# 3: The tax cuts drove up deficits and debt. That is the most obvious lie. Federal revenues have risen substantially for the eight years following the rate cuts, and higher revenues do not raise debts and deficits. Only increasing spending much faster than revenue increases causes debts to rise.
Lie #5: The tax rate cuts failed to deliver on their promises. This is another obvious lie.
The promise was that the cuts would help the economy and help people have higher real wages. And the cuts’ results were that poverty hit record lows and real wages were rising for everyone, especially those at the bottom and people of all races:
Real median household income increased by $4,400 in 2019, reaching an all-time record high of $68,700. This represents a 6.8 percent one-year increase, which is the largest one-year increase in median income on record. Since 2016, real median household income has increased by 9.7 percent (after adjusting for a Census survey redesign in 2017).
Income gains in 2019 were largest for minority groups. Real median income grew by 7.9 percent for black Americans, 7.1 percent for Hispanic Americans, and 10.6 percent for Asian Americans (see Figure 1). These one-year increases were all record highs, and the new income levels reached in 2019 were all record highs, as well.
Lie #6: The tax bill is unpopular with the public. According to a poll, 85% want the tax rate cuts extended. That is pretty popular.
The article concludes:
Another lie that we constantly hear is that extending the tax rates will cost $4.5 trillion. Keeping the rates the same costs nothing, and revenues will continue to rise. Only in the DC fictional world will raising rates back to 2017 rates raise $4.5 trillion when the lower rates have provably raised more money.
The higher rates would slow down the economy and further destroy Americans’ purchasing power, especially among the poor and middle class, people whom the media and other Democrats only pretend to care about. All they really care about is more power and money for the government.
Conclusion: Don’t ever believe any organization that pretends to be a non-partisan think tank. These organizations have an agenda, and they don’t care how many lies they have to tell to intentionally mislead the public.
Don’t you wish people’s pants did catch fire when they lied?