Epshteyn Uses Loaded Language and Fallacious Reasoning to Defend the Indefensible

In his recent commentary on the GOP tax plan being rushed through Congress, Boris Epshteyn falls back on fallacious reasoning and loaded language to defend legislation that his unpopular with just about everyone except lobbyists.

We know they are necessary to fund the government, pay for our national defense and vital infrastructure. However, does anyone actually want to pay more taxes? If you listen to certain folks from the Democrat Party, and members of the media, you would think so.

First, “Democrat.” This is a long-standing cutesy label used by those who are criticizing the Democratic party.  It is not, as some have suggested, to include the word “rat” in the adjective.  Rather, it is a convoluted way to avoid using a word that has rhetorical resonance in American political discourse: democratic.  We take pride in our “democratic” institutions.  We believe in having a “democratic” government.  We hope that countries ruled by totalitarian regimes are replaced by a “democratic” system of rule by the people.

The word in its small-“d” variety carries quite a wallop in our political discourse—one much greater than small-“r” “republican.”   So, to avoid semiotic bleedover (i.e. the positive connotations of small-d “democratic” being associated with big-D “Democratic,” this grammatically suspect shell game is perpetrated on listeners.

We, of course, also have a strawman argument presented, in which it is implied that Democrats are arguing that people want to pay more taxes, which is not the actual position suggested.

  

The reality is that the tax reform which is speeding to the finish line is going to be great for us as a country. 

About that “speeding to the finish line”: the details of the policy itself aside, the process through which this legislation is going through Congress has been a dog’s breakfast of meetings involving only GOP legislators, handwritten changes scrawled into the margins of the bill, and votes in the middle of the night.  The use of “speeding” suggests that the pace is due to the smoothness of the process and popularity of the legislation.  Neither of those is true.  The rush is to get something—anything—done that will appease GOP donors and lobbyists (hence lobbyists being earlier to get notice of changes than legislators or reporters).  

One wonders why, if the legislation is so self-obviously good and the GOP controls both houses of Congress, there is such a rush to ram this through. (BTW, have I mentioned how unpopular this legislation is?)

Projections show that the tax cuts will result in consistent 3 to 5 percent annual GDP growth on top of the economic expansion that's already happening right now, according to the Council of Economic Advisors.

This is an incomprehensible statement.  Is Epshteyn saying that GDP will be 3 to 5 percentage points higher than it would be otherwise (i.e. double to triple what it is now)?  That is either his colossal misunderstanding of the source he cites (which is, let’s be clear, the president’s own handpicked group) or he’s intentionally suggesting this, hoping his viewers are ignorant rubes who will fall for it. 

In point of fact, the Tax Policy Center (which actually is nonpartisan) analyzed the hastily-thrown together bill and noted that it would produce little, if any, growth (fractions of a percent in GDP) while exploding the debt.

Both the House and Senate version of the tax bill ensure that Americans earning up to $24,000 pay no taxes - that is double the current $12,000 limit. This is a direct benefit for Americans who are nowhere near the top 1 percent. Small businesses will get a tax cut, as well. No wonder ¾ of millennials surveyed in a recent poll support the need for tax reform.
 

Epshteyn sloppily (or overtly disingenuously) suggests that people making up to $24,000 a year will “pay no taxes” under the GOP plan.  Of course, that’s nonsense.  All people pay taxes all the time—local taxes, sales taxes, state taxes, paycheck withholding, etc.—regardless of their income.  In fact, the $24,00 number seems to apply to a married couple (not “people”).  And mortgage and state tax writeoffs would be largely eliminated.  The result would be little, if any, benefit for the working poor.  Indeed, one of the many myths invoked to support the plan is that it's not *really* designed to disproportionately wealthy.  It is. 

Moreover, Epshteyn disingenuously quotes a study that says ¾ of millennials want tax reform.  What he doesn’t note is that this has nothing whatsoever to do with the specific GOP legislation or even the broader issues it claims to address.  Shockingly people (including millennials!) think the tax code should be different than it is.  Epshteyn engages in fallacious reasoning to suggest that wanting change of any sort suggests support for the GOP plan.  This is all the more true given that millennials will be the ones facing the gigantic deficits caused by the tax plan. 

The most hand-wringing by opponents of the tax bill is reserved for the corporate tax cut, as if it’s a bad thing that small, medium and large businesses which employ Americans throughout the country will get to keep more money so they can grow and hire more people. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost 150 million Americans are employed by a business - so it’s a pretty good thing when those businesses have more resources.

“Hand-wringing”—again, we have framing language suggesting that any opposition to the GOP tax plan is hysterical and irrational, despite the fact that most Americans are against it and that even Republicans themselves grant that the plan explodes the deficit. 

Moreover, Epshteyn lumps “small, medium, and large businesses” into one category.  But in fact, small businesses would get little if anything, from the proposed tax plan.  Of course, that fact comes from that liberal rag, Forbes, so take it with a grain of salt.  And it is a pretty good thing when businesses have more resources, if those who work for them partake in these resources.  But they don’t—at least not in the form of higher wages or hiring more people.  How do we know that? Because businesses themselves have said so.  They’ve said any windfall from taxes would go to paying down debt and increased money to shareholders. 

Here is the bottom line: my sense about the overreaction from those who claim that tax reform would ruin America is that they simply cannot accept that Donald Trump and the Republican Party are on the brink of a major achievement that will benefit Americans and will resonate come election time in 2018 and 2020. 

Here’s the bottom line on this “Bottom Line”: Epshteyn and other Trump supporters want a win—any win at any cost—soon, and GOP pols want to kiss up to megadonors.  Hence, a tax plan that is wildly unpopular is getting slapped together under cover of darkness, which will explode the deficit while getting nothing in return for the average American.  And the average American know it (you have to have put together a pretty crappy tax cut bill to make it as unpopular as most tax hikes).  It is impossible to defend the tax plan on objective economics, so Epshteyn must introduce loaded terminology, unsupported assertions, and fallacious reasoning to make his argument.