Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz Spar Over Tax Reform in Debate

By Naomi Jagoda, The Hill

19 October 17

ens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sparred over taxes in a primetime debate on CNN Wednesday, with Cruz arguing that the GOP’s framework would benefit the economy and Sanders lambasting it as a boon for the wealthy.

“Bernie and the Democrats want to raise your taxes, and the Republicans want to cut them so that you have more in your pocket,” Cruz said.

But Sanders said, “this entire proposal is about is to give tax breaks to people who don't need it, and you do that by making massive cuts in education, in health care, in housing, in the programs that working families desperately need.”

The debate between the two runners-up in the 2016 presidential primaries comes as Republicans aim to pass legislation overhauling the tax code by the end of the year. The White House and congressional GOP leaders released a framework last month that would reduce the number of individual tax brackets and cut rates for businesses.

Cruz said that everyone would benefit from lower business taxes and that it’s important to lower the corporate tax rate because, currently, jobs are going to other countries with lower taxes.

Sanders, however, called the tax plan “a Robin Hood proposal in reverse,” supported by wealthy GOP donors like Charles and David Koch, that would mostly benefit the highest income people and would come at the expense of programs such as Medicaid and Medicare. Sanders also said that very few global corporations pay the current statutory rate of 35 percent.

One particular part of the GOP tax plan that Sanders and Cruz argued over was the proposal to repeal the estate tax. Cruz argued that the people hurt by the tax are farmers, ranchers and small-business owners. Sanders, however, said that few farmers have to pay the tax and that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has acknowledged that repealing the tax would largely benefit the wealthy.

Cruz and Sanders also debated the effects of tax cuts on the national debt.

Cruz said that the debt increased under former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and that “the only force big enough to turn the debt around is economic growth” that could be generated by cutting taxes.

Sanders countered that the national debt increased after former President George W. Bush cut taxes.

“Voodoo economics … is a fraud,” he said.

Besides taxes, Sanders and Cruz also spent a considerable amount of time talking about healthcare.

Sanders, who supports single-payer healthcare, argued that the average American would prefer paying $3,000 more in taxes and see their $5,000 health insurance premiums disappear. But Cruz criticized single-payer programs in other countries as well as ObamaCare.