News Reporter: Fact Checker: Ivanka Trump touts GOP tax cuts with data borrowed from the Obama administration

Wednesday 22 November 2017

Fact Checker: Ivanka Trump touts GOP tax cuts with data borrowed from the Obama administration

Democracy Dies in Darkness

The truth behind the rhetoric

Ivanka Trump touts GOP tax cuts with data borrowed from the Obama administration

We had puzzled over a comment by Ivanka Trump until our puzzler was sore. Speaking on behalf of her father's tax plan, Trump said it would provide relief, in the form of tax credits and deductions, to families struggling to pay for child care. Then she said something that stopped us in our tracks. She added that"We spend less than any country in the developed world on children between the ages of zero and 5. It's just a fact." We wondered where this fact came from and how it made the case for a cut in taxes.

It took a little digging but it turned out she had borrowed this factoid from a report issued by President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. The report – which made the case for expanding access to high-quality pre-kindergarten programs – cited 2011 data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that showed the United States ranked 33 out of 36 with respect to total investment in early-childhood education relative to country wealth. (The OECD notes that it does not capture state and local data, so to some extent the U.S. figure is too low.) In any case, the proposed tax cuts wouldn't boost the United States' rank – and even could increase taxes on 40 percent of families with children. For her mental gymnastics, we awarded Ivanka Trump One Pinocchio.

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Meet Paul Ryan's 'Cindy,' a single mom who he says gets $700 from the tax bill

Many readers have asked about "Cindy," a proverbial single mother that House Republicans –including House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in a tweet — have highlighted to make the case that the tax plan moving through Congress at a fast clip will help ordinary Americans, despite a bevy of provisions that benefit corporations and the super-wealthy. Cindy earns $30,000 as an assistant restaurant manager and has an 11- year-old child.

Under the current tax law, Cindy does not pay much in federal income taxes; in fact, she pays $2,295 in payroll taxes but actually gets a tax refund of $1,447 after credits. Initially, under the House GOP tax plan, she would indeed get $711 more in her tax refund. But Ryan's tweet said she would get $700 "each year under our tax bill" when instead, it's get frittered away over time because Republicans changed the inflation rate for tax rates, did not include an inflation-adjustment for tax credit and also let many provisions expire within a few years. By 2027, Cindy's $700 extra in taxes dwindles to about $200. Ryan earned Two Pinocchios.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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