Fmr. Reagan Adviser Compares GOP Tax Plan to 'Rape' on MSNBC

Nick Kangadis | December 5, 2017
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After paying your taxes, have you ever thought, "Man, this is just like a sexual assault?”

Bruce Bartlett, a former policy adviser to late-president Ronald Reagan and U.S. Treasury official under president George H.W. Bush, apparently thinks just that.

Bartlett joined MSNBC host and “reformed” homophobe Joy Reid on Sunday to discuss the GOP tax plan that is currently making its way through Congress. Reid’s guest certainly used some ill-advised words.

Reid, of course, was slamming the tax plan for raising taxes on lower-income people when she asked Bartlett why Republicans would raise taxes on them?

Here’s Bartlett’s response:

Maybe they think that the poor have it so easy that they need to have to pay more taxes to force them to go out and work more. Really, the amazing thing is that people seem to be accepting this so meekly and mildly. It's really akin to rape.

It’s one thing to compare two things that have nothing to do with one another. It’s another thing entirely when you compare a tool of government to sexual assault on another person.

The whole liberal narrative that this GOP tax bill will hurt low-income people was addressed last week during CNN’s tax reform debate between Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Cruz called the Tax Policy Center, which Sanders constantly quotes, as a “left-wing group” before explaining why low-income tax payers could see a hike in their taxes after 10 years.

Here's part of Cruz's argument during the debate:

The reason they [Tax Policy Center] say 87 million people’s taxes will go up is because he [Sanders] said ‘by the end of the decade.’ Why? In 2027, all of the individual tax cuts are scheduled to expire. Why? Because the Democrats promised to filibuster their opposing tax reform.

Basically, Bartlett’s argument falls flat because, according to Cruz, the only reason low-income people will see their taxes go up in 2027 is because of Democrats unwillingness to work across the aisle.

Despite his Reagan-era origins, Bartlett has become a darling of the liberal media, writing for and being interviewed such places as Salon and MSNBC. The reason for the Left’s love of Bartlett might be some of his op-ed headlines and/or quotes in 2017:

  • “Trump is clearly the most incompetent president we’ve ever had.” - Salon
  • “The Republican Party needs to die.” - Salon
  • “First, Republicans want tax cuts. Next, they’ll try gutting Medicare and Social Security” - Washington Post
  • “How Democrats can beat the Republican tax cut” - NY Daily News
  • “Tax cute fever: Republican trickle-down theory is lies” - USA Today

You get the picture. Anything would have been better than using “rape” as an analogy for the GOP tax bill. Although — to be fair — some liberals have been using the fear tactic of saying that people will die because of the tax bill, so apparently murder isn’t off the table as an analogy either.

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