Former Vice President Mike Pence on Monday criticized President Joe Biden's American Jobs Plan in a Fox News op-ed that touted the benefits of "cutting taxes on American employers" in 2017, compared to reducing them for workers making less than $400,000 a year.
Pence offered praise of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed by former President Donald Trump and passed by the then-GOP majority in Congress. Pence claimed U.S. employers were finally given incentives to remain in America because they were "no longer driven away by an exorbitant tax burden." But he criticized Biden's tax proposal, which looks to raise taxes on corporations, a rate slashed to 21 percent by Trump, as well as on wealthy individuals who earn more than $400,000 in annual income.
Pence accused the Biden tax plan of "threatening to bring back the anemic job growth, stagnant wages and rampant offshoring that defined his term as vice president." Pence's argument focused on helping corporations rather than "non job creators," including middle-class individuals.
The former vice president appeared to give himself and Trump credit for the "post-pandemic recovery," arguing that Biden's tax plan would bring the economic upheaval to a "screeching, devastating halt." Pence went on to accuse Biden of selling out American employers and workers in favor of policies that Pence and Trump have claimed help "Communist China."
Despite Pence's claims, many economists say the 2017 tax cuts worsened the country's income inequality gap and only benefited the "super-rich" and wealthiest corporations.
Pence wrote in his op-ed, "As part of his American Jobs Plan, Biden is proposing a massive tax hike on employers that will once again put American workers at a major disadvantage with their competitors in foreign countries. Biden's tax hike will give the United States a business tax rate that is substantially higher than even Communist China."
He continued, "Job growth will trickle to a standstill. Capital investments will be canceled. Fewer products will be Made in the USA. Manufacturers will pack up and head overseas, leaving a hole in the heart of blue-collar communities. The robust wage gains that workers have enjoyed in recent years will vanish into thin air, along with the hopes and dreams of millions of middle-class families. Our jobs, factories and prosperity will steadily drift out to sea in search of foreign shores."
Pence concluded, "Worse yet, China stands to become one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Biden tax hikes." The former vice president said foreign competitors are salivating at the Biden tax cuts and that China stands to gain thousands of jobs from companies fleeing higher U.S. tax rates.
Newsweek reached out to representatives of Pence as well as Trump Monday afternoon for additional remarks.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Benjamin Fearnow is a reporter based out of Newsweek's New York City offices. He was previously at CBS and Mediaite ... Read more
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