Republicans Have Reneged On Their No New Taxes Pledge

Dennis Crawford
5 min readSep 3, 2024

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One of the things that the Republican Party used to be known for was their “no new taxes” pledge. Corporate lobbyist Grover Norquist is the founder and president of so-called Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), a corporate and billionaire funded organization that opposes all tax increases. Norquist’s group has close ties to both the Republican Party and the K Street lobbyists. Since 1986, ATR has sponsored the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a written promise by legislators and candidates for office that commits them to oppose all tax increases.

Convicted felon Don Old Trump violated the no new taxes pledge as part of his failed 2017 tax cut for the wealthy and corporations. Buried deep within a multi-thousand page bill that was hastily passed without any real scrutiny or debate was a tax increase on Gold Star families. It was repealed by a bi-partisan majority in 2019 once Gold Star families discovered the tax increase. This is yet more evidence that Trump hates the troops and their families.

During his presidency, Trump hit working families with a big tax increase in connection with his trade war. Trump increased taxes on imports in a failed effort to negotiate a fair trade treaty with China. A CNBC analysis of data from the Treasury Department in 2019 ranked the combined $72 billion in revenue from all of the Trump’s tariffs as one of the largest tax increases since 1993.

“It’s certainly not the largest tax increase in history but it does rank among some of the bigger tax proposals over the last 20 years that have raised revenues,″ said Kyle Pomerleau, chief economist with the Tax Foundation.

Convicted felon Trump plans even more tax increases on working families if he is elected president. As a matter of fact, Don Old has proposed the biggest middle class tax increase in history. (Somebody has to pay for the tax cuts for the billionaires and corporations.) Trump would impose a 60% tax on all imports from China, a 100% tax on all auto imports and a 20% tax on all other imports.

Trump’s proposed tariffs or tax increases would “cost a typical household in the middle of the income distribution about $1,700 in increased taxes each year,” the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said in a recent report. The Peterson Foundation leans right and is funded by the estate of a Republican billionaire.

Trump’s Project 2025 includes even MORE tax increases on working families. This Heritage Foundation plan would increase income taxes on the poor and middle class to fund a tax cut for the wealthy. Millions of low- and middle-class households would likely face significantly higher taxes under this proposal.

The plan also considers a national sales tax. Sales taxes tend to be regressive and redistribute income upwards.

Here’s what Trump’s Project 2025 would mean for two families’ tax bills. A family of four with an income of $100,000 would pay $2,600 more. Only families making over $170,000 would get a tax cut. In contrast, a family earning $5 million would grab a $325,000 tax cut!

Now Trump and the Republicans have falsely claimed that Trump has nothing to do with Project 2025. What Don Old Trump doesn’t want you to know is that he gave the keynote address at the Heritage Foundation in 2022 where he said the work the foundation did (Project 2025) would be crucial to his policy goals.

“And Heritage does such an incredible job at that. This is a great group, and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detailed plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America. And that’s coming, that’s coming,” Trump declared.

Of the 38 people involved in the writing and editing of Project 2025, 31 of them were nominated to positions in Trump’s administration or transition team — meaning 81% of the document’s creators held formal roles in Trump’s presidency.

At the same time, Trump plans another huge deficit funded tax cut for the rich. Trump would extend the failed 2017 tax cuts at a cost of $4.4 trillion. In addition, he would cut already low corporate and capital gains taxes.

Closer to home in Nebraska, Jim Pillen and his allies tried to jam through a huge sales tax increase to fund a property tax cut for the rich. Pillen’s top legislative priority this year was to fund a 50% property tax cut that would favor the wealthy by raising Nebraska’s sales tax by two percentage points. It would have shifted the tax burden from the wealthy to the poor and the middle class. This regressive bill would have have saddled Nebraska with the highest sales tax rate in the region and devastated our economy.

In addition, Nebraska’s Republican governor asked the senators to terminate up to 130 sales tax exemptions, including on the purchases of farming and manufacturing, and the energy used in agricultural and industrial operations. This would raised taxes next year by a whopping $928 million!

Pillen’s extreme plan was rejected twice this year by a Nebraska legislature in which the Republicans enjoy a 33 to 16 majority. Pillen was forced to settle for a bill that reduces property taxes an average of 3% statewide and capping property tax collections by cities and counties. Pillen’s plan was too radical for a very conservative majority. It would be like Charlie Sheen saying a party was too wild for him.

The Republicans’ so-called “no new taxes” pledge is no longer part of their platform. Instead, the “no new taxes pledge” only applies to the wealthy and corporations. Everybody else would pay more taxes if the Republicans win the election.

The best way to describe the GOP platform is as follows: “Rich people don’t have enough money and the poor and middle class have it too easy.”

The 2024 election is the most important election in our lifetime. It will determine whether or not the United States will remain a free country. Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to rule as an authoritarian leader without any checks and balances.

There is an anti-MAGA majority outside of the red states. Trump has never once gotten more votes than his political opponent. Ever. And under his stewardship, the Republican Party has had historic electoral defeats in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023. The Democratic winning streak has continued into 2024.

Be confident going forward. Take nothing for granted. Keep working hard.

It’s America or convicted felon Trump. Choose wisely.

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Dennis Crawford
Dennis Crawford

Written by Dennis Crawford

I’m an author, historian, freedom fighter and a sports fan. https://www.denniscrawford.org/

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