Cruz Agrees With Bernie on Tax Cuts, Asks Him to Cosponsor Legislation

Cortney O'Brien | December 28, 2017 12:00 PM

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) admitted to CNN's Jake Tapper that the GOP tax plan is at the very least a short term benefit for middle class America. He just wishes it was permanent.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) had to agree with him. He is now reaching out his hand hoping Sanders will join his effort to make his wish reality.

I agree, @BernieSanders -- let's make the middle-class tax cuts permanent. Join me, we'll co-sponsor legislation (I've already got it drafted) that does exactly that, and we'll get it passed in January! https://t.co/7A3Wg6c4M9
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 27, 2017

For Cruz to make such an offer is surprising, considering the two political figures went head-to-head on the subject this fall in a debate on CNN.

“What this entire proposal is about is to give tax breaks to people who don't need it, and you do that by making massive cuts in education, in health care, in housing, in the programs that working families desperately need,” Sanders said at the time.

Liberals are now accusing conservatives of taking Sanders's chat with Jake Tapper out of context, noting that Sanders has never wavered in his belief that the Republican tax reform plan will unfairly benefit the wealthy and large corporations.

But Sanders' staunch opposition to the tax bill has always been rooted in his belief that working Americans are being taken advantage of by the nation's wealthiest earners, so the criticism conservatives are trying to apply here hardly makes any sense.
"It would be unconscionable to leave Washington after giving tax breaks to billionaires and large corporations, while we ignore the enormous problems facing working families," Sanders said on the Senate floor last week. (Salon)

Sanders is not the first to note that some of the GOP tax reform benefits are only temporary. Austan Goolsbee, a former Obama economic adviser, skewered conservatives for supposedly concealing the fact and likened it to getting away with murder. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, not to be outdone, said it amounted to Armageddon.