FACT CHECK: Nancy Pelosi’s Claims About the Tax Bill Are False

Tax Bill
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi speaks about the Omnibus budget deal during a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, March 22, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Nancy Pelosi would like the public to forget the evidence in their paychecks every week continuing to rant about the tax bill. She’s trying to convince them that they’re actually paying more in taxes under President Donald Trump.

At a Townhall event earlier in the month, she told constituents that “eighty-six million middle-class families will see a tax increase while they advertise it as a middle-class bill.” It’s a claim that she’s been repeating since December, regardless of the fact that nobody in the middle class has seen a tax increase. It’s truly unclear who Pelosi thinks she’s going to convince of the claim.

Even the Washington Post, a publication Trump particularly despises, thought it was appropriate to fact check the claim given how often Pelosi had repeated it. And to little surprise, they found it was complete nonsense. To quote directly from the Post:

In 2018, most U.S. taxpayers can expect some kind of tax cut, according to just about every analysis. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that more than 80 percent of taxpayers would get a tax cut, with less than 5 percent getting a tax increase.

She’s Conveniently Misleading

So how do we go from 80 percent of taxpayers getting a tax cut, to 87 million families seeing a tax hike? Pelosi decided to get creative with the numbers, and did not specify that she’s talking about how individuals may fare under the Trump tax plan in the year 2027.

Now, this is simply because the individual income tax cuts expire after 10 years. In other words, after 10 years, people will see an “increase” equivalent to their “cut” a decade prior. That also implies that 87 million American families are currently seeing a tax cut as a result of Trump’s tax legislation.

No shortage of Democrats have criticized the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for keeping the corporate tax cuts, but having the individual cuts be temporary. Ted Cruz has introduced a bill to make the individual income tax cuts permanent too, but to little surprise, he hasn’t had any Democrat takers.

Are you at all surprised about Nancy Pelosi’s claims about the tax bill?

By Matt

Matt is the co-founder of Unbiased America and a freelance writer specializing in economics and politics. He’s been published... More about Matt

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