Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer asked a Democratic congressman if he considers himself a capitalist or a socialist because of the lawmaker’s vocal support for President Biden’s domestic agenda.
“Do you consider yourself a capitalist or a socialist?” Hemmer asked Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) when he appeared on Fox’s “America’s Newsroom” on Wednesday.
“I’ve been a small-business owner for 33 years, so you tell me,” Pocan responded. “I know a little bit about capitalism.”
Hemmer pressed Pocan, asking again, “So you’re saying you’re a capitalist, correct?”
“Yeah, I think I’m pretty good at understanding capitalism,” Pocan said.
Hemmer then said Biden’s tax plan, which Pocan has voiced support for, would “go after some Americans and tax more than 60 percent of their gross income depending on where they live in the country.”
Pocan shot back that Hemmer’s characterization of Biden’s tax plan was a “misrepresentation” of what the bill would do.
“What Joe Biden has said is people who make more than $400,000 [per year] and corporations who often haven’t paid their fair share … they’re the ones who are going to pay it,” Pocan said.
Earlier this month, Pocan, a leading member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Democrats should work to pass a large social spending package aimed at funding child care, addressing climate change and expanding medical coverage, among other things, because he believes such legislation would be popular with many Americans.
“Once people see how popular these things are … many of these debates are the same debates we had when you created Social Security and other programs. And once people got them, you saw how wildly popular [they were]. We think some of these are going to be in that wildly popular category,” Pocan said.
“The child tax credit is a classic example. I mean [look] how popular it is right now; it’s a lot easier for us to extend that out,” he added.
The news comes after a group of powerful Democrats insisted on a long-term extension of the child tax credit as part of the social spending package. The move would extend the expansion of the child tax credit to 2025.
On Tuesday, Biden met with lawmakers from both the House and Senate in an attempt to usher along progress on a deal for the social spending bill. During the meeting, the president proposed clipping the four-year extension of the child tax credit to one year.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), head of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, said, “A one-year extension is a big mistake.”