The left-leaning fact-checker PolitiFact did damage control for former Vice President Joe Biden in the debate over repealing President Trump's monumental tax cuts. PolitiFact took issue with a Pro-Trump Super PAC's ad, which used Biden's own words to show that the Democratic nominee would raise taxes if elected in November.
PolitiFact rated the ad as "mostly false" and claimed that the group took Biden's words "out of context." The former vice president's proposed tax increases would amount to double that of Hillary Clinton's tax plan in 2016. The left-leaning Tax Policy Center agreed that taxes would go up under a Biden administration, and the former vice president admitted it himself:
Biden: “your taxes are going to be raised, not cut.”
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) September 1, 2020
Trump team: “did you.. hear that?”
PolitiFact: “nope, nobody heard that. Mostly false, move it along.” pic.twitter.com/vsalza7V66
As can be heard in the video above, Biden says to an audience member who benefited from the GOP-passed tax law: "If you elect me, guess what, your taxes are going to be raised, not cut." Biden's comment is hinged on the Democratic talking point that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) only benefitted the wealthy, which has been debunked by nonpartisan and even left-leaning analysis.
Biden vowed to repeal the majority of the TCJA, which overwhelmingly cut taxes for middle-class taxpayers and families. The law crafted by Republicans allowed every income group, except those earning over $1 million to see a tax cut. Biden's vow to repeal the tax cuts signed into law by President Trump will only harm the very same middle-class Americans he claims to represent.