What They’re Saying: “The Single Stupidest Platform Anyone Has Ever Put In Writing” – Senate GOP Slammed For “Saddling Republican Candidates In The Midterms With A Tax Hike”

Insider: “Saddling Republican candidates in the midterms with a tax hike”

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell: “The single stupidest platform anyone has ever put in writing — including massive tax increases on most Americans”

POLITICO: “Democrats wasted no time attacking Republicans”

A wave of news coverage continues to slam Senate Republicans’ plan to “raise taxes on as much as half of the country” – as “Democrats wasted no time attacking Republicans” while the GOP openly frets that they are “saddling Republican candidates in the midterms with a tax hike on tens of millions of… Americans.”

See for yourself:

The Hill: Senate Democrats rip Rick Scott’s GOP agenda in new ad. The DSCC is rolling out a five-figure radio and podcast buy criticizing Scott’s agenda, particularly hitting Scott over his call for all Americans to pay income taxes. 

• “This just in, Republicans have released their plan if they win the Senate,” the radio spot says. “It’s to raise taxes on over 50 percent of Americans, including many seniors and working families. If Republicans win, we’ll pay the price.”

• “We’re making sure voters know the facts about Senate Republicans’ agenda: a tax hike on millions of seniors and over half of all Americans,” said the DSCC’s communications director, David Bergstein, in the statement. “At every opportunity, Republicans are pushing the interests of the ultra-wealthy and big corporations that get rich by spiking costs — all while working families pay the price. In 2022, voters will hold every GOP Senate candidate accountable.”

MSNBC: Democrats pounce on Republican leader’s proposed tax increase. One day after Rick Scott called for a tax hike on millions of Americans, Democrats have already launched a new ad campaign on the issue.

• The 15-second ad itself is pretty straightforward: “This just in, Republicans have released their plan if they win the Senate,” the script reads. “It’s to raise taxes on over 50 percent of Americans, including many seniors and working families. If Republicans win, we’ll pay the price.”

•  It seems like a safe bet that this won’t be the last Democratic ad on the subject.

POLITICO: Scott’s ‘Rescue America’ plan falls flat. Privately, officials from some top Republican Senate campaigns mocked the plan, questioning why the Florida Republican senator released it in the first place — and why the GOP would ever suggest raising taxes at all.

• Democrats wasted no time attacking Republicans over Scott’s plan. By Wednesday morning, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was out with a radio ad — set to run on Pandora, iHeart Radio and podcasts — highlighting the new Republican plan to raise the income tax.

New York Times: On Politics – Scott versus McConnell? Judging from the gleeful reaction of Senate Democrats… Scott’s move might have been a blunder. 

• They’re now attacking a provision in the plan that reads: “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.”

• David Bergstein, the communications director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, emailed out a statement quoting critics of Scott’s proposals. “While Senate Democrats are fighting to lower costs and cut taxes, Senate GOP candidates have found 

Washington Post: New tax plan from leading GOP senator would require all Americans to pay federal income taxes. He predicted the plan would face blowback, and he was right.

• Roughly 50 percent of Americans on the bottom half of the income distribution do not pay federal income taxes because they do not earn enough to have income tax liability and because many receive tax credits.

• Even some allies of Scott said his timing could hurt Republicans.

• Indeed, Democrats were quick to seize on Scott’s plan. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee announced Wednesday morning that it is launching a five-figure radio ad campaign focused on highlighting tax hikes for millions of Americans. Congressional Democrats argued Scott’s comments reflect the GOP’s belief that much of the U.S. do not work hard enough.

• Their midterm bumper sticker: raising taxes on Americans, seniors and working families,” Bergstein said in a statement.

Insider: GOP Sen. Rick Scott claimed he doesn’t want to impose new income taxes on most Americans. It’s on page 35 of his new plan. The plan itself includes in very clear language a proposal to newly extend income taxes to millions of Americans. 

• A prominent Republican senator tried recasting details of his proposed midterm platform for the GOP after facing major blowback from Democrats and potentially saddling Republican candidates in the midterms with a tax hike on tens of millions of low-and middle-income Americans.
  
  MSNBC: Rick Scott pretends he didn’t propose tax increases (but he did). The Florida Republican released a plan in writing that called for tax hikes for millions of working-class Americans. Now he’s pretending otherwise.

• Scott was simply denying reality when he said “of course” his plan didn’t propose tax increases on roughly half the country.

• This need not be complicated. The GOP senator literally put this in writing: “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.”

• Not to put too fine a point on this, but that’s what “tax increase” means.

WATCH – CNN: GOP’s Scott Reveals Tax Hike Plan, Then Denies Plan To Raise Taxes

• John Berman: “He is definitionally proposing to raise taxes on Americans.”

• John Aylon: “Did he not bother to read his own damn plan? Cause it’s right there, it’s not particularly hidden… That means raising taxes for people – like half of Americans, working-class folks, retirees, others. Don’t lie.”

WATCH – MSNBC: NRSC Chair Rick Scott Puts Out Far Right Agenda For ‘22 

• Lawrence O’Donnell: Because Rick Scott is not good at thinking, he has given Republicans the single stupidest platform anyone has ever put in writing — including massive tax increases on most Americans, including senior citizens living on Social Security

Read more from the DSCC on ‘what they’re saying’ about Senate Republicans’ plan to increase taxes on over half of the country here. 

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