“Face It: You (Probably) Got a Tax Cut,” New York Times reporters Ben Casselman and Jim Tankersley said this weekend in a headline conveying exasperation.
That members of the media are mystified that the general public does not realize it got a tax break in 2018 is a bit rich, considering the role the news media played in demonizing the law that created the apparently little-known tax cuts.
Casselman and Tankersley write, “Ever since President Trump signed the Republican-sponsored tax bill in December 2017, independent analyses have consistently found that a large majority of Americans would owe less because of the law. Preliminary data based on tax filings has shown the same.”
Put in plainer terms, “Most people got a tax cut,” they report, adding that, “Taxes were down, on average, in every state.”
Roughly 65% of Americans paid less last year because of tax reform, while a much, much smaller 6% paid more, according to the Tax Policy Center. The tax-preparation group H&R Block also said that roughly two-thirds of its returning customers paid less in taxes in 2018 than they did in the previous year.
The general public, however, does not appear to realize any of this.
In fact, only 40% of Americans believe they got a tax cut, while a much smaller 20% say they are certain they got one, according to new data compiled for the Times by SurveyMonkey. A separate NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey shows only 17% of Americans believe their taxes will be lower following the successful passage of the GOP tax reform bill, while a much larger 28% say they believe they will “pay more.” Twenty-seven percent in the same poll say they believe they will “pay about the same” in taxes in 2018, while 28% say they “don’t know enough.”
The widespread perception that the tax law did not lead to cuts is rather astonishing, considering it is the opposite of reality. So, who is to blame for misleading the public? The Times points an accusing finger at Democratic lawmakers and liberal activist groups. I would suggest the newspaper also take a look at the mirror, as the media was more than happy to amplify, or participate in, partisan opposition to the tax law.
The opinion sections of the Times and the Washington Post, for example, have pumped out articles with headlines like, “A Tax Plan to Turbocharge Inequality, in 3 Charts,” “Apparently Republicans want to kick the middle class in the face,” and “Yes, the Senate GOP tax plan would cause ‘thousands’ to die.”
MSNBC has provided a platform to a nearly endless string of anti-tax reform activists, including former Republican policy adviser Bruce Bartlett, who alleged in 2017 the tax reform bill is, “akin to rape. It really is.”
Let’s not forget that there was an entire news cycle this year revolving around reporters seizing on incomplete filing data to claim, inaccurately, that tax refunds were smaller in 2018.
“Get ready for an unhappy tax surprise,” Yahoo Finance announced in a headline that, in retrospect, seems pretty stupid. Speaking of retroactively bad takes, this New Yorker op-ed, titled “No, the Media Has Not Been Unfair to the GOP Tax Bill,” also seems disingenuous, if not outright dishonest, considering the tax bill did not jump-start the apocalypse as newsrooms claimed it would, or even rape anyone.
If we want to talk about who has been fair throughout the entirety of the tax reform news cycle, I would suggest we start with the people who actually delivered on their promises. That excludes most of the national press.
