CNN is trying to hoodwink Americans into believing that their taxes won’t increase under a Biden administration.
The network’s latest article read like a press release by former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign staff: “The vast majority of Americans are unlikely to see their taxes go up under President-elect Joe Biden, despite false claims by President Donald Trump to the contrary.” The article used the left-wing Tax Policy Center (TPC) as its source.
CNN Politics writer Katie Lobosco, in her piece headlined “Will your taxes go up under Biden? It's unlikely,” reiterated the false Biden campaign position that the tax plan “wouldn't raise individual taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000 a year, which is more than 90% of taxpayers.”
That flies directly in the face of a rare fact check that ABC’s Jonathan Karl did on that same Biden claim. The irony is that Karl used the TPC, the same liberal organization Lobosco used to make her absurd claims, to do it.
Karl grilled Biden campaign co-chair Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) on October 11:
[Biden] has said that he will not raise taxes on anybody making less than $400,000 a year. But the analysis put forward by the Tax Policy Center shows that, in fact, middle-income earners between — making between $50,000-$90,000 a year — will see an increase of $260.
Karl even pressed Richmond on the fact that the Biden campaign had pledged to repeal President Donald Trump’s tax cuts on “day one.” Karl said: “Now, obviously the Trump tax cuts lowered — significantly lowered — the tax rate for lower income earners.” He continued: “In fact, the Tax Policy Center found that middle-income workers — some middle-income workers — saw $900 a year in tax savings. So, repealing the Trump tax cuts — full-on repeal — that does raise taxes on middle-income earners, doesn’t it?”
Lobosco even conceded that “The Republican tax package included key provisions that end in 2025, which means that lots of people will see their taxes go up if Congress doesn't pass an extension -- creating a looming headache for a second Biden term or for whoever succeeds him.” If Biden fully repeals those tax cuts as his campaign said he would in the past, the tax “headache” would be a lot worse. [Emphasis added.]
To prove her thesis, Lobosco said “middle-income households could see an average tax cut of $680 and low-income households could see their tax bills fall by $760, according to an analysis by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center [TPC].” She didn’t mention that the TPC is a left-wing think tank.
Lobosco isn’t being forthcoming about the very report she cites to make her claims. The estimated savings she cited by the left-wing TPC applied to Biden’s plan to temporarily expand the child tax credit, which would go into effect in 2022. But, as the TPC itself summarized: “Biden’s proposal to expand the child tax credit and make it fully refundable expires in 2023, so that proposal does not reduce taxes for middle- and lower-income households in 2030 as it does in 2022.” This means that the generous estimated savings by the left-wing think tank are expected to decrease as years pass. Lobosco doesn’t provide any of this context. [Emphasis added.]
Lobosco also claimed that Biden’s tax hikes were “expected to bring in more than $2 trillion in revenue over 10 years.” That’s also disputed. A recent Tax Foundation report showed that on a dynamic basis, Biden’s tax plan “would raise about $400 billion less revenue than on a conventional basis over the next decade.” The Tax Foundation had also estimated that Biden’s plan “would reduce [U.S.] GDP by 1.47 percent over the long term.”
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board also explained that Biden’s tax plan would also “raise labor costs by imposing the 12.4% Social Security payroll tax to income above $400,000.” According to The Journal, “The $400,000 threshold isn’t indexed for inflation so it would apply to ever-more Americans as the years go by.”
The Tax Foundation also recently found that on a dynamic basis, Biden’s tax plan would “reduce after-tax incomes by about 2.5 percent across all income groups over the long run.” Lobosco ignored mentioning any of this. [Emphasis added.]
In addition, Biden’s tax, health care, energy and regulation proposals would lead to “$6,500 less in median household income by 2030,” The Journal noted. [Emphasis added.]
Conservatives are under attack. Contact CNN at 1-(404)-827-1500 and demand they report honestly on Biden’s tax plan.
