The Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney looks at the big disconnect between the reality of middle class tax cuts that millions of Americans will be enjoying, and what those very same Americans think is happening.
Only 1 in 6 Americans polled last month thought they would see a tax cut from the bill, while twice as many expected a tax increase. This is dead wrong, according to all estimates. Somewhere between 70 percent and 80 percent of taxpayers will see lower taxes thanks to this bill, and only 5 percent will pay higher taxes.
So, let’s return to Ezra Klein’s question: What does it say about American democracy that people will be voting this November on the false belief Republicans have hiked their taxes?
It tells us that voters are driven more by vague impressions of what their politicians are doing than the hard details of what politicians are doing. When a bill is rushed through Congress, lacking proper transparency and debate, the public is likely to ask, “What are they hiding?” In this case, much of the public assumes Republicans are hiding tax cuts for the rich and tax hikes for everyone else. A sloppy media fed that suspicion.
