The first independent expenditure in the congressional race between U.S. Marine veteran and businessman Casey Askar and former educator Pia Dandiya has taken place, as the No Going Back PAC drew first blood against Dandiya, accusing her of supporting tax hikes and opposing "middle-class tax cuts."
The super PAC's first spend was in the form of a political campaign mailing citing Dandiya's (3 )social media posts as the source. The social media posts appear to have been deleted.
"Tax-hiking Pia Dandiya wants your family to pay more... she called middle-class tax cuts "reckless" and opposed a plan to cut taxes on Florida families," reads the mailing.
Dandiya's open opposition to President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill"Â (OBBB) legislative measure could be at the core of the attack against her campaign.
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which targeted (7) tax brackets, President Trump signed into law, was made permanent in the OBBB that Dandiya opposes, and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) was increased to $2,200 from $1000.
Dandiya wants to tax "the wealthiest Americans" per her website. Taxing the rich is a widespread tax initiative supported by Progressive members of Congress, including Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna, who endorsed Dandiya's congressional campaign.
“The fairest way to keep these programs strong for generations to come is to ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share — not to balance the budget on the backs of the people who built this country,” Dandiya’s website reads.
Even though Dandiya is worth around $9-11 million, she would not be considered one of the "wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share."
In the mailing, Askar is referred to as a better choice to "slash taxes for Florida families."
Askar recently stated that he will file legislation to permanently cut the federal gas and diesel taxes. This has never been done before.
“This is something that I’ve advocated for many years, being in the fuel distribution supply business, and I think that we’re taxed way too high at the pump," said Askar. “We want to see this being a permanent either removal or significant reduction."
“So much of our dollars spent at the pump are due to federal taxes,” Askar said in an interview with The Floridian. “One thing that I’ll push for is abolishing that federal tax.”
