Who truly wants tax cuts for rich?

Democrats continue to attack Donald Trump and Republicans for handing out tax breaks to their wealthy friends and donors. Joe Biden last week at the national convention called Democrats the party for the working class and blue collar Americans. But is that really the case? Let us take a look at the two main tax stimulus proposals in front of Congress.

The plan from Trump would cut the payroll tax over the rest of the year. It would provide 140 million low and middle income Americans a 6 percent tax cut and would lower payroll costs for 30 million small businesses. The typical family with an income of around $60,000 would receive a $1,000 pay raise for the rest of the year. Nancy Pelosi has stated she opposes the idea, even though she supported this when Barack Obama was president. Trump signed an executive order to at least delay the payroll tax for those who make less than $100,000 during the rest of the year.

Now for the plan from Democrats. The House stimulus bill, which passed earlier this year at the cost of $3 trillion, has one clear tax cut. It is a new tax write off which would greatly aid Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, George Soros, and other wealthy campaign contributors to Democrats. This plan would reinstate the state and local tax deduction to federal filers.

Under the tax reform signed by Trump, the state and local tax deduction was eliminated over $10,000. So as such, the Tax Policy Center, which is hardly conservative, finds that well over half the benefits of the plan from Pelosi would go to the richest 1 percent. The Tax Policy Center calculates furthermore that her plan would deliver tax savings of an astounding $10 each year to the typical middle class family in the country.

That is enough to pay for two happy meals for the kids. So the payroll tax cut of Trump targets 100 percent of the money to those with earnings of less than $100,000, and the Democrats give close to 100 percent of the benefits of their tax cut to folks who make more than $100,000. Why do Democrats support a tax break for the wealthy that provides virtually no stimulus to the economy and that even liberal groups like the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities decried as aid for billionaires?

This is purely special interest pleading. The federal filers who would enjoy the benefits live in blue states such as New York, Connecticut, Minnesota, California, Oregon, and more. Some of the benefits would head on toward the mansion and yacht owners in these states. The big price tag of the tax deduction would also cancel the revenue benefits with raising the highest income tax rate to over 39 percent, as Joe Biden proposes.

Tax reform, as agreed to in a bipartisan way in the 1980s, means lowering rates and closing up special interest loopholes. The plan from Democrats raises rates and inserts special interest loopholes. As for adding back the state and local tax deduction, where are the “sock it to the rich” folks like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren when we need them?

Stephen Moore is an adviser at Freedom Works and a member of the White House economic recovery task force. Find him on Twitter @StephenMoore.