{"id":40252,"date":"2019-03-11T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T10:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=40252"},"modified":"2019-03-05T12:39:57","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T17:39:57","slug":"demagoguing-tax-refunds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2019\/03\/demagoguing-tax-refunds\/","title":{"rendered":"Demagoguing Tax Refunds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is tax season.\u00a0 People will be preparing their income taxes for the first time under the 2017 tax cuts.<\/p>\n

Some early filers were outraged<\/a> that their tax refunds are going to be lower than last year.\u00a0 Social media was fired up with complaints that the Trump tax cuts were a fraud.\u00a0 Forums sprung up like #GOPTaxScam.<\/p>\n

But nearly every American did receive a pretty substantial tax cut.\u00a0 When the rates go down, the withholding from your paycheck also goes down.\u00a0 That means you didn\u2019t pay in as much, so, assuming\u00a0 your tax bill is less than you paid in advance, you wouldn\u2019t\u00a0 get so much back.<\/p>\n

\n

You got your tax savings throughout the year in every paycheck, which you got to keep more of.\u00a0 Your refund has nothing to do with your total tax bill.<\/p>\n

But the complaints, though based on not thinking the matter through, were somewhat understandable.\u00a0 Many Americans have come to depend on those tax refunds as a forced savings account (never mind that the government gets to use that money free of charge, rather than their getting interest on it), a jolt of extra income that they have come to depend upon.<\/p>\n

So while many Americans didn\u2019t know any better, a number of politicians did<\/em> know better, but they demagogued the issue.<\/p>\n

Kevin D. Williamson<\/a>\u00a0discusses the phenomenon.\u00a0 He quotes presidential candidate Kamala Harris:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe average tax refund is down about $170 compared to last year. Let\u2019s call the President\u2019s tax cut what it is: a middle-class tax hike to line the pockets of already wealthy corporations and the 1%.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And Democratic activist Richard Reich who passes as an economist<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile millions of Americans have seen their refunds shrink,\u201d Reich writes, \u201csome of the most profitable corporations in the country are filing for massive refunds.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Williamson goes on to show how Democrats\u2013including Alexandra Ocasio-Cortes\u2013have been distorting other facts about taxes (not just tax refunds, but tax credits and corporate taxation) to create the impression among the public that they are being cheated.<\/p>\n

Ironically, though refunds were down at first, now that more taxes has been filed, it turns out that refunds are up after all<\/a>!\u00a0 But the cynical dishonesty of certain politicians remains.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo by stevepb via Pixabay, Creative Commons License<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is tax season.\u00a0 People will be preparing their income taxes for the first time under the 2017 tax cuts. Some early filers were outraged that their tax refunds are going to be lower than last year.\u00a0 Social media was fired up with complaints that the Trump tax cuts were a fraud.\u00a0 Forums sprung up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":40396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,19,36],"tags":[657,8122,1747,5936,5393,2155],"class_list":["post-40252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economics","category-government","category-politics","tag-democrats","tag-kamala-harris","tag-political-rhetoric","tag-republican-tax-reform-bill","tag-tax-cuts","tag-taxes"],"yoast_head":"\nDemagoguing Tax Refunds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some taxpayers are complaining that their refunds are less, concluding that the tax cut is a scam. 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