The New York Times’s fact check of Vice President Kamala Harris’s closing arguments found that “Ms. Harris omitted several elements of Mr. Trump’s tax proposals that would benefit working Americans.”

Harris has repeatedly lied about the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts and does not want to admit that the bill cut taxes across the board. Harris continues what the NYT described in 2019 as a “sustained — and misleading — effort by liberal opponents of the law to brand it as a broad middle-class tax increase.”

In its analysis, the New York Times fact checks Harris’s recent speech in Atlanta, Georgia on October 19th in which she stated:

“Donald Trump will give billionaires and corporations massive tax cuts.  Like he did it last time, he would do it again.” 

The New York Times fact check correctly points out that under the 2017 tax measure “a majority of people received a tax cut.” In fact, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed by President Trump in 2017 cut taxes across all income levels.

The New York Times further states:

“The law’s reductions to the individual tax rate are set to expire in 2025, and Mr. Trump supports extending those cuts and further reducing the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 15 percent for some companies. But several of his other tax proposals would benefit middle- and lower-income Americans, including eliminating taxes on tips and Social Security benefits.”

Harris has lied about TCJA since its enactment in 2017 and has never retracted her repeated vow to “repeal that tax bill.”

TCJA actually made the tax code more progressive. Data from the Congressional Budget Office also shows that high-earning Americans pay a greater share of taxes than before the Trump tax cuts.

  • The top one percent of earners paid 38.6 percent of income taxes in 2017 and 41.7 percent of income taxes in 2018.
  • The top 20 percent of earners paid 87.1 percent of income taxes in 2017 and 90.9 percent of income taxes in 2018.
  • The top one percent of earners paid 25.5 percent of all federal taxes in 2017 and 25.9 percent of income taxes in 2018.
  • The top 20 percent of earners paid 69.3 percent of all federal taxes in 2017 and 69.8 percent of federal taxes in 2018.

Reporters have everything they need to follow up when Harris lies, as numerous center-left outlets have previously weighed in:

CNN’s Jake Tapper: “The facts are, most Americans got a tax cut.” 

New York Times: “Most people got a tax cut.”

Washington Post: “Most Americans received a tax cut.”

FactCheck.org: “Most people got some kind of tax cut.”

FactCheck.org also stated: “The vast majority (82 percent) of middle-income earners — those with income between about $49,000 and $86,000 — received a tax cut that averaged about $1,050.”

H&R Block: “The vast majority of people did get a tax cut.”

Janet Yellen: Even the Biden-Harris administration — via Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen — acknowledged TCJA cut taxes for all during testimony to the Senate Finance Committee.

Finance Committee Ranking Member Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) wisely got Yellen on the record:

Crapo: “Are you aware that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which Republicans passed in 2017 reduced the taxes for Americans for all income groups including those earning less than $400,000 a year?“

Yellen: “Yes.”