It was clear from the moment Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) released a plan in February that included a tax increase on roughly half of Americans that it would be a big fat target for Democrats during a midterm election year.
The latest to take aim: the White House.
In an early morning “fact sheet,” the White House uses the plan released by Scott, who runs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, to argue that Biden is seeking to cut taxes for the middle class while Republicans want to raise them.
“Republicans complain that middle-class Americans don’t have ‘skin in the game’ and don’t pay enough in taxes,” the White House says. “But the truth is that middle-class Americans are the back bone of our economy, pay plenty in federal, state, and local taxes, and in many cases pay a higher rate than the super-wealthy.”
The “fact sheet” makes no mention of the fact that Scott’s Senate colleagues, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), immediately distanced themselves from Scott’s plan.
Scott has argued that Democrats are mischaracterizing it, but the plan clearly states: “All Americans should pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount. Currently over half of Americans pay no income tax.”
It’s true that roughly 50 percent of Americans do not pay federal income taxes because they do not earn enough to have income tax liability and because many receive tax credits.
Scott’s tenure as NRSC chairman, meanwhile, is examined in a new story by The Post’s Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey in which Scott argues that he owes his detractors nothing:
“My whole life has been people telling me that, you know, you’re doing it the wrong way. You can’t, you shouldn’t be doing this,” he said. “I’ve been up here for three years. Do you know how many people have come to me and asked me, before they vote, what my opinion is on something and whether it’s good for my state? That would be zero.”
