Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Sen. Rick Scott\u2019s new \u201c11 Point Plan to Rescue America\u201d didn\u2019t quite receive the enthusiastic reception he was counting on.<\/p>\n
Democrats and op-ed columnists jeered Tuesday at the conservative blueprint that, in part, proposed raising income taxes on low-income Americans. But GOP Senate campaigns didn\u2019t want to touch it either. There was no rallying around the National Republican Senatorial Committee chair\u2019s new platform, which was unveiled with strategic news stories, a website and video.<\/p>\n
Privately, officials from some top Republican Senate campaigns mocked the plan, questioning why the Florida Republican senator released it in the first place \u2014 and why the GOP would ever suggest raising taxes at all during a midterm year featuring record-high inflation and unpopular Democratic control.<\/p>\n
POLITICO contacted 27 Republican Senate campaigns asking whether their candidate agreed with the income tax proposal outlined in Scott\u2019s new plan \u2014 just a single Senate candidate provided an official position on the details: Rep. Billy Long, a Missouri Republican seeking to replace retiring GOP Sen. Roy Blunt. The income tax point was out of the question, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree with former Missourian Sen. Rick Scott that we need a plan before we take back the Senate, and while I agree with 95% of it, this suggested income tax hike is ill advised,\u201d Long said in a statement, referring to Scott\u2019s time living in Missouri as a college student and young adult. \u201cInflation is a huge tax increase on all Americans already, so Joe Biden already beat Rick to the punch on raising taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long then described a recent trip to Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods for ammunition, when he walked out empty-handed after noticing the price had nearly doubled.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time folks purchase anything the sales tax meter is spinning,\u201d Long said. \u201cI vote no to any income tax increase.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three other Republican Senate campaigns \u2014 for Rep. Mo Brooks in Alabama, Chuck Morse in New Hampshire and Adam Laxalt in Nevada \u2014 replied with general comments that their candidates oppose raising taxes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis entire career, Mo Brooks has fought tax increases because he believes money belongs in the hands of the people who earned it, not the government,\u201d said Brooks\u2019 campaign spokesperson Will Hampson, before proceeding to attack Brooks\u2019 opponent Katie Britt, who supported a 2019 Republican-ledgas tax increase<\/a> as head of the Business Council of Alabama.<\/p>\n Both Brooks, who is endorsed by Trump, and Britt, who did not respond to a request for comment, have signed Americans for Tax Reform\u2019s pledge not to increase taxes if elected.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t support tax increases on anyone,\u201d Laxalt said in a statement, noting that he too had signed ATR\u2019s pledge.<\/p>\n Scott, a business owner and former Florida governor, didn\u2019t elaborate in his plan about what, exactly, his proposed tax hike would include.<\/p>\n \u201cAll Americans should pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount,\u201d Scott wrote in the plan. \u201cCurrently over half of Americans pay no income tax.\u201d<\/p>\n Tax experts took notice, pointing out that Scott\u2019s suggestion was reminiscent of comments then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney made during the 2012 election when he derided \u201c47 percent\u201d of Americans who \u201cpay no income tax\u201d and \u201cshould take personal responsibility and care for their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI suspect it was not a well-vetted part of that platform that he put out,\u201d said Ryan Ellis, president of the conservative Center for a Free Economy and an IRS enrolled agent who previously worked as Americans For Tax Reform\u2019s tax policy director.<\/p>\n \u201cHad it been \u2014 internally to the Senate, and externally to the conservative tax world and other friends of Rick Scott and the NRSC \u2014 I don\u2019t think it would have survived.\u201d<\/p>\n The NRSC clarified Tuesday that the plan was released by Scott in his capacity as a senator, not as the Senate committee leader.<\/p>\n It\u2019s \u201ca boomer talking point,\u201d Ellis said, to discuss raising taxes for the roughly half of Americans who don\u2019t have to pay federal income taxes because they are low-income, senior citizens or have children and tax credits that offset their income tax liability. Many of those people already pay payroll and excise taxes.<\/p>\n The topic had been part of a decade-long policy debate on the right leading up to the 2012 election, Ellis said, but effectively came to an end after that.<\/p>\n Former President Donald Trump won on nearly an opposite message: cutting taxes for lower-income households.<\/p>\n \u201cTax increases \u2014 our voters don\u2019t dig tax increases,\u201d said Dave Carney, a Republican strategist in New Hampshire. \u201cTo be fair to [Scott], I don\u2019t know what the hell the context is. Generally, taxes are not very popular with Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n Carney is serving as the consultant for Morse, the president of the New Hampshire state Senate who is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan, a key race in the GOP\u2019s fight to gain a seat and take control of the Senate.<\/p>\n Morse, who also has signed Americans For Tax Reform\u2019s candidate pledge not to raise taxes, wasn\u2019t able to read Scott\u2019s lengthy document Tuesday, but Carney said his candidate wouldn\u2019t get behind an initiative to raise income taxes.<\/p>\n As a former NRSC official, Carney noted the committee put out a multi-point platform ahead of the 1994 midterm elections, a plan that complemented House Republicans\u2019 Contract With America that year. The Senate plan was \u201cnegotiated over months,\u201d Carney recalled, receiving input from incumbents and all the Republican nominees that year.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Scott confirmed he did not collaborate with other senators on the new platform.<\/p>\n