Raphael Warnock, the far-left pastor running to unseat Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) in the Senate runoff election on January 5, 2021, condemned the Republican tax cuts in the most hyperbolic of terms, comparing them to King Herod’s slaughter of the innocents in his quest to kill Jesus Christ as a baby. Democrats have demonized the tax cuts, even though the bill gave 82 percent of middle-class Americans a tax break.
In a 2017 sermon, Warnock painted the passage of the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act as a late-night baby-murder spree.
“While others were sleeping, members of the United States Senate declared war, launched a vicious and evil attack on the most vulnerable people in America,” the pastor said in a sermon. “Herod is on the loose. Herod is a cynical politician, who’s willing to kill children and kill the children’s health program in order to preserve his own wealth and his own power.”
“Hope is in the air but Herod is on the loose… ‘The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight,'” Warnock added, quoting “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”
“So on Friday night, the United States Senate decided, by a slim majority, to pick the pockets of the poor, the sick, the old, and the yet unborn in order to line the pockets of the ultra-rich,” the pastor argued. “Don’t tell me about the gangers and thugs on the streets. There are more gangers and thugs in Washington, D.C., in the capital…” A round of loud applause cut him off.
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Democrat Raphael Warnock called GOP Senators "gangsters and thugs" trying to "kill children" for cutting taxes for working-class families. https://t.co/WxpM6ufCbH #GApol #GAsen pic.twitter.com/LBDMuJqkop
— Nathan Brand (@NathanBrandWA) December 14, 2020
When the House and Senate signed the tax cuts and President Donald Trump signed them into law, many Democrats resorted to bizarre — if not unhinged — rhetoric to condemn them. Leading Democrats compared the tax cuts to a “heist,” “looting,” and “robbery.”
In Attacking Trump Tax Cuts as ‘Theft,’ Democrats Prove They Don’t Believe in Private Property
The Democrats suggested that Republicans are taking away money that Democrats believe belongs to the federal government. This violates a central premise of America’s founding, the right to private property. In fact, the right to private property is so ingrained in the letter and spirit of America’s laws that Abraham Lincoln’s argument against slavery rested on it.
In demonizing tax cuts, Democrats suggest that Americans’ wages belong to the federal government. But even that insane communistic argument was not as unhinged as Warnock’s claim.
Warnock was referring to the massacre of the Holy Innocents, the episode in which King Herod ordered the death of all Jewish babies in order to prevent a prophesied king of the Jews, Jesus Christ. Christians remember this heinous massacre on December 28, the Day of the Holy Innocents.
Warnock suggested that Republican senators were somehow killing children by cutting taxes. Yet the tax cuts actually helped the American people.
A whopping 82 percent of middle-class Americans saw a tax cut in 2018, with an average savings of more than $1,260. A full 90 percent of workers saw an increase in pay after the IRS adjusted withholding tables to reflect the new law. Last year, wages grew an average of 3.3 percent, the best in a decade. The Republican tax cuts accelerated job growth by nearly 25 percent and opportunity zones led investors to put their money into distressed communities. Finally, the Trump tax cuts doubled the child tax credit, saving working families an estimated $100 billion.
These aren’t just Republican talking points. The Tax Policy Center estimated that 82 percent of middle-income Americans would receive a tax cut for an average reduction of individual income taxes of $1,260 in 2018, increasing after-tax incomes by 1.7 percent. Lower-middle-class households saw the largest tax cut as a percentage of their income, The Wall Street Journal reported. The new withholding tables lower the amount of money employers withhold from workers’ paychecks, according to USA Today. According to the Treasury Department, 90 percent of Americans saw an increase in their take-home pay. The Bureau Of Labor Statistics reported a 3.3 percent average wage increase.
CNBC reported the wage growth for October and December 2018 was tied for the best since April 2009. The Bureau Of Economic Analysis reported that real GDP grew by 3.1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2017 to the fourth quarter of 2018. The opportunity zones provision is helping struggling communities, and the child tax credit is tailored to help lower-income families.
Tragically, Democrats and their allies in the legacy media have pushed false talking points about the tax cuts. According to the RealClearPolitics average, only 36.3 percent of Americans approve of the cuts, while 40.8 percent disapprove of them, giving the Trump tax cuts a negative 4.5 percent. Only 17 percent of Americans think their taxes were cut, according to a Wall Street Journal poll last year.
The tax cuts helped Americans across the board, and Democrats have egg on their faces. The tax cuts were not a “heist” or an act of “looting,” and they were absolutely nothing like King Herod’s horrific massacre of innocents.
This example of unhinged rhetoric once again illustrates that Raphael Warnock is far off the deep end and absolutely no fit for the people of Georgia.
Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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