With the Republican-controlled Congress moving forward with President Donald Trump’s call to extend the 2017 individual tax cuts, Democrats and Republicans are spinning the facts about who would benefit. Several Democrats have framed the tax cuts as exclusively benefiting billionaires, while Trump has suggested everyone in America would see a tax cut.
In addition to extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, one of his signature achievements in his first term, President-elect Donald Trump has proposed a long list of tax cuts, from eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits to lowering the corporate tax rate. We’ll look at Trump’s tax proposals, their cost and what impact they could have on taxpayers.
In the closing weeks of the campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris has portrayed former President Donald Trump as a danger to democracy. She also has warned he will enact policies that will hurt blue-collar workers, women, seniors, and the nation’s health care system and economy. That was her message at eight campaign events that we reviewed from Oct. 18 through Oct. 22.
Former President Donald Trump is proposing to lower the federal corporate tax rate to 15%, insisting that when he lowered it to 21% starting in 2018, revenues received by the government actually went up due to economic growth it spurred. Economists say that’s not what happened.
In a classic example of how political ads mislead viewers by using out-of-context quotes, a TV ad from former President Donald Trump’s campaign cites the New York Times as saying Vice President Kamala Harris “is seeking to significantly raise taxes.” Period, end of sentence. The rest of that sentence in the Times said: “on the wealthiest Americans and large corporations.”
In Vice President Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech, we found familiar claims about taxes, abortion, birth control, and Social Security and Medicare.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accepted his party’s vice presidential nomination, and repeated claims he has made before about the Republican ticket. Other speakers tried to link former President Donald Trump to Project 2025, among other claims.
A few speakers put some spin on the facts about Trump’s plans for another term.
We fact-checked former President Donald Trump’s speech accepting his party’s nomination.
We fact-checked the first night’s speeches, which mainly focused on economic issues.