We’re near the end of this extended analysis, and here’s the next pic:
This is a noteworthy example of stripping context while pretending this is the entire story.
The context? The stories behind each tax plans. I’ll note that I’ll omit a thoroughly warranted tirade concerning provision of sources, and simply stipulate to accuracy for the space of this response. It may not be, but the numbers are close to what I recall from the campaigns.
For Trump, a President already notorious for presiding over a surge in the Federal deficit that is directly linked to the 2017 tax reform bill for which he advocated and proudly signed, we have to wonder how Trump plans to shrink a Federal deficit – even a little – that he had promised to be rid of by the end of his term. Of course, his supporters can argue that he had planned to have eight years, rather than four, but his anti-progress on that front had been so terribly horrible that Trump advocates should be relieved, rather than appalled, that he was decisively defeated in 2020.
But this isn’t only about the size of the deficit, but Trump’s response as well. Already celebrated for deregulation, much of it turned back by the Federal judiciary in response to suits, that deregulation which was meant, if we dare to take Trump at his word, to spur the economy and lessen the cost of government, the serious must wonder how much more deregulation is necessary to make up the monstrous gap for which Trump is responsible. Worse yet, regulations are industry-specific and do not always have a financial aspect as their primary focus. Environmental regulations, eviscerated, may bring ecological doom down upon the lands they affect, for example, while saving a great deal of money: a fool’s bargain, sad to say.
The Biden plan, on the other hand, must be put in the context of another dreadful economic and deficit performance by a Republican President. A typical GOP argument against raising taxes, as deceptive as it is, that the economy will suffer, has been given a fatal blow by the utter failure of the aforementioned 2017 tax reform bill to generate the economic activity predicted by the hapless GOP officials who backed it. So Biden proposes raising taxes in order to cover a ballooning deficit fueled by the GOP’s mistaken cant.
The author finishes up with denigration intended to remind the conservative reader of their inherent, if only self-perceived, advantage over their liberal cousins. There’s nothing honest about it; ignoring the 30,000 lies of the former President as a reason to not vote for him – my first and foremost reason, and the reason that should have persuaded every so-called conservative to abandon Trump as well – while claiming it’s the result of mean tweets, identifies the author as someone unworthy of notice by the serious student of American government and politics.
But then, this is sheer and single-minded manipulation. Did you fall for it?
