Will Republicans Actually ... Raise Taxes on the Rich? - Slate

[justaprogressive]

Muscle memory is leading congressional Republicans to a doomed electoral place. For the second Trump presidency in a row, the House and Senate GOP have teed up a legislative agenda that will cut taxes for the wealthy while raiding safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps. They should already know how unpopular this will be: Republicans’ effort to cut Medicaid—under the branding of “Obamacare repeal”—never made it to the finish line in Donald Trump’s first term. But the mere attempt to do so contributed heavily to their loss of 40 House seats, and control of that chamber, in the 2018 midterms.

Republicans’ destination here is why many Democrats have been content to wait for the Trump administration to overreach—they’ve long assumed that Republicans don’t know any better but to follow this course. And it’s not just the proposed swap of Medicaid funds for tax cuts that Democrats have honed in on. Every organized message from House and Senate Democrats against the Trump administration has led back to their pursuit of tax cuts for the wealthy. Elon Musk’s reckless slashing of the federal government? Banking money for tax cuts for the rich. Universal and reciprocal tariffs? A tax increase on average Americans to offset tax cuts for the rich. What Democrats are trying to say is: The Trump-era Republican coalition may have represented itself as the new party of the working class, but as soon as they get power, they revert to the same old, same old.

Or will it really be the same old, same old? Surprisingly, as Republicans finally set pen to paper on their “one big, beautiful bill” comprising tax cuts, spending cuts, and increases to defense and immigration enforcement spending, they’re suddenly considering a fiscal policy curveball for the ages: raising income taxes on the rich.

Some in the White House, as Axios first reported in late March, were considering allowing the 37 percent rate for the top tax bracket—set in place in the 2017 Trump tax law—to expire, returning it to 39.6 percent. That would have two advantages. It would give them hundreds of billions of additional dollars to use for other tax priorities, like eliminating tax on tips, overtime, or Social Security benefits. More importantly, though, it would wound one of Democrats’ sharpest talking points. As a White House official told Axios, “If we renew tax cuts for the rich paid for by throwing people off Medicaid, we’re gonna get f–king slaughtered.”

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/04/why-republicans-might-raise-taxes-rich.html

[Lovie777]

1. No.............

if anything, it would be an illusion.