Group That Says Tariffs Are Taxes Praises Rate Hiker JD Vance on His Pledge Not to Pay Taxes

In 2019, when then-President Donald Trump was considering higher tariffs on goods from Mexico, Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, had taken an unequivocal position: “Tariffs are taxes.”

But this year, with two proponents of higher rates leading the Republican Party’s White House ticket, that stance isn’t stopping ATR from giving Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance a boost, with the group saying it’s reneging on its famous pledge of no new taxes.

On Tuesday, the conservative group praised Vance’s signing of the pledge while criticizing Vance’s Democratic counterpart, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, for hiking taxS in his state.

“While Tim Walz has raised taxes on Minnesotans by $10 billion, Senator @JDvance has signed the #NoNewTaxes Pledge, pledging to protect Americans from income tax increases,” said one ATR social media postwhich was one of several statements trumpeting Vance’s pledge during this week’s vice presidential debate.

ATR has long been seen as one of the most influential interest groups in Washington. Norquist, the founding leader, is considered a tax giant in the world, which has pushed the Republican Party to prioritize lower taxes before reducing the budget deficit. One of the greatest weapons in that battle was the promise.

This history made the touting of the Vance promise curious. The promise is usually phrased in the sense that Americans will be allowed to keep a larger share of their income. Yet there are two think tanks from opposite ends of the political spectrum – the Center for American Progress and the American action forum — have said that Trump and Vance’s tariff ideas would result in typical American households paying about $3,900 more per year.

“I’m surprised that ATR would come out and advertise that, given that tariffs are a core part of Trump and Vance’s economic agenda,” said Joe Hughes, a senior policy analyst at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

“Americans for Tax Reform is not actually an organization that deals in any serious way with discussing tax policy reform,” he said. “Their mission is to support conservative candidates and actually has very little to do with any kind of serious tax reform.”

ATR did not respond to a request for comment on Vance’s pledge and rates.

The pledge does not specifically mention rates, but a version for federal candidates says signatories pledge to oppose “all” efforts to increase marginal tax rates and to oppose any “net reduction” in tax deductions and credits unless these accompanied by further cuts. in tax rates. The presidential version of the pledge is simpler, with signatories promising to veto any tax increase.

It was unclear from Tuesday’s social media posts exactly which version of the promise Vance made and when he made it. (ATR said earlier during the 2022 midterm elections, Vance, then an Ohio candidate for the U.S. Senate, had taken the pledge.)

Norquist’s views on tariffs were clear in 2019 an appearance on CNBC To talk about Trump’s tariff proposal against Mexico that year, Norquist simply said, “Tariffs are taxes.”

“They are taxes on American consumers and American producers who use imported products. We need to reduce those rates as soon as possible,” he added.

Vance defended higher rates in his debate with Walz on Tuesday evening. Trump has proposed a broad tariff of 10% or more on almost all incoming goods from abroad, and a higher tariff of at least 60% on specifically Chinese goods. A large majority of economists agree that such tariffs come at a cost passed on to consumersand many think they will hit the economy hard.

Norquist’s 2019 language resembles that of Vice President Kamala Harris’ current campaign for the Oval Office. The Democrat has tried to popularize the Republican Party’s rate proposal as the “Trump tax,” likening it to a sales tax. Trump has strongly denied that the costs to importers of paying higher tariffs are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, even though that is the widespread view among economists.

Hughes, the policy analyst, agreed with the idea that a tariff is ultimately a tax.

“It’s very similar to a sales tax in many ways. It is a tax on consumption and is generally seen as a regressive tax because lower-income families tend to spend a greater share of their income on consumption than higher-income families,” he said.

In this year’s race between Walz and Vance, ATR is “afraid” of the candidate “who cuts taxes for low-income families by raising them for multinational corporations,” Hughes said. “And the one they support and endorse is the one that wants to raise taxes on average families by $4,000 a year.”