In a recent CNBC interview to discuss Conservatism and raising taxes on Americans, American Compass Executive Director Oren Cass stated that there was a growing amount of Republican lawmakers in the U.S. Congress that wanted to raise taxes, particularly raise the corporate taxes that former President Donald Trump slashed during his first term in office.
Cass also said that Rep. Jason Smith, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the House of Representatives believed that the corporate tax rate “needs to be higher” across the board.
Cass, who also believes there is “nothing conservative about cutting taxes,” then invoked Senator Marco Rubio, saying that the senior senator from Florida and potential vice presidential pick was open to raising taxes.
His opinion stems from Sen. Rubio’s past thought process that some taxes need to be higher in order to support the child tax credit measure back in 2018.
Because Republican members of Congress are alleged to support raising taxes once the Trump tax cuts expire, it was important to find out if there were Republican lawmakers who supported raising taxes, particularly Senator Rubio.
The Floridian caught up with Sen. Rubio shortly before he flew back to Florida last week, where he scoffed at the idea of raising taxes, affirming his position with a firm “No.”
Rubio questioned the idea of anyone wanting to raise taxes he and many other Republican lawmakers believe led to historic economic growth.
So, Rubio is opposed to raising taxes, but what about other Republicans on The Hill?
We decide to ask a couple more prominent Republican lawmakers—Senator Ted Cruz and Rep. Byron Donalds—about the possibility of raising taxes.
When asked if he was in favor of raising taxes. Rep. Donalds said,” Well that’s stupid. It would be a detriment to the economy.”
We then told him that there is a belief that a group of Republican lawmakers support raising taxes, including business taxes, Rep. Donalds said that if there were, he wasn’t “one of them,” adding that the Trump tax cuts were the “Best tax policy this nation’s ever had.”
“That is a dumb policy(raising taxes), common sense does not live on Capitol Hill,” added Donalds.
An astonished Senator Cruz told The Floridian that he found it hard to believe that Senate Republicans would oppose the Trump tax cuts, let alone support raising any taxes.
“Every Republican in the Senate was unified in passing those tax cuts. The economy took off producing the lowest unemployment in 50 years,” said Sen. Cruz. “Given the incredible results they produced, I would be very surprised if we had Republicans not favor extending those tax cuts.I don’t think anyone would support that.”
Sen. Cruz also said that raising taxes is “one of the most important issues in the election in November” considering the current state of the U.S. economy, and the fact that President Joe Biden is running on raising taxes by allowing the Trump tax cuts to expire, causing a “multi-trillion dollar tax increase on the American people.
“If Trump wins and we have a Republican majority in the House and Senate, I am certain that we will extend the tax cuts. I hope we go even further—bigger and bolder tax cut simplifying the tax code , lower the burden on working americans,” added Cruz.
We did speak to a few other House Republicans and asked them the same questions, All of them asked if we were joking, questioning why any Republican would support raising taxes on every day Americans and businesses.
