The GOP’s Senate primary in Ohio has been lively, to say the least. During a recent debate, things got so heated that Mike Gibbons, the establishment’s favorite, and Josh Mandel, who is often seen as more populist, had to be physically separated.
J.D. is a part of a long-standing story. Vance and Mandel split the vote, while Gibbons is ahead overall (via polling), by just a few percentage points. Early voting is now open and will continue until May 3, when the real primary election takes place.
Yet, despite his lead, Gibbons decided to burn his campaign to the ground recently by saying something that might as well have taken from Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. Here’s what that sounded like.
Ohio GOP Senate candidate Mike Gibbons on a Crain’s Cleveland Business podcast:
“The top 20% of earners in the U.S. pay 82% of federal income tax — and, you do the math, and 45% to 50% don’t pay any income tax… The middle class is not really paying any kind of a fair share.” pic.twitter.com/VUYzPTlqmX
— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) April 8, 2022
It’s the weekend, so I’m going weapons-free on gif usage.
It is hard to believe that a Republican candidate can still not recognize the year in our modern world. Inflation is killing the middle class, so a prominent GOP presidential candidate believes now is the right time to examine the unfairness in our tax system that allows billionaires and millionaires to get rich.
And look, I get that he’s kind of half-right in a technical sense. True, the most federal income taxes are paid by the highest-wage earners. The middle class pays FICA taxes. They are responsible for sales taxes. They are subject to state income taxes. Each time they fill up their tank, they have to pay the gasoline tax. Insinuating they aren’t “paying their fair share” is misleading at best.
The statistics also show that on average the federal income tax paid by the middle-class is around 8 per cent. Gibbons suggests that it is higher than zero. Heck, I’m middle-class and I’m about to write a $15,000 check to the IRS — despite paying a hefty amount into the system every month (i.e. I have a much larger overall bill. I’m sure most people reading this are middle-class and owe money, or that their refund doesn’t fully offset what they paid to the government throughout the year.
Thirdly, Gibbons’ statement makes does not account for the differences in capital gains tax rates and income tax rates. After a threshold, most Americans who are the wealthiest make their majority of their income through investments. When you compare the net income of the wealthy to the effective tax rate, it means the rich contribute about the same proportion as the middle classes. Now, I’m not suggesting the capital gains tax should be increased, and I understand how important spurning investment is to the economy. But I am suggesting the assertion that the rich are deeply abused when it comes to the overall tax structure just isn’t true.
Finally, it is politically stupid to try and pursue the middle class in today’s environment, regardless of all technicalities. Gibbons himself is, of course, a very wealthy man, which explains why he’d be stupid enough to even get into this topic. Any GOP candidate must have sufficient filtering to avoid setting themselves on fire. Even if Gibbons, because of early voting, ends up winning the primary, he’s now made himself a liability not just in his own race, but to other Republican candidates around the country.
I don’t know who else besides Gibbons needs to hear this, but it’s not 2012 anymore. Mitt Romney’s vision of the GOP is never coming back. Instead of obsessing about tax rates, talk about the issues Americans care about.
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