Sage Eastman of Mehlman Castagnetti, a former longtime Republican aide on the Ways and Means Committee, said, “People were voting in 2018, so you party with bigger paychecks in 2018 and risk the hangover in 2019 and hope it wears off before 2020.”
If that was actually the case, Republicans were playing with political fire. Some 70 percent of taxpayers typically get refunds, averaging about $3,000. Plenty of them plan around that, to pay bills or buy that flat-screen TV they’ve been wanting. Others view it as sort of a savings account.
As the smaller-refund narrative took hold in the media, Republicans started giving lessons in accounting.
Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and House Ways and Means ranking member Kevin Brady (R-Texas), both of whom played prominent roles in drafting the 2017 tax law, penned a joint op-ed to explain that smaller tax refunds don’t represent tax liabilities. Refunds result from overpayments.
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