Americans don't like the Republican tax plan. (And no wonder! There’s so much to dislike.) That unpopularity has Senate Republicans wondering not how to change the bill, but how to improve its public image.
“I think we have got to a better job of communicating to America what’s in this. This is hugely stimulative with regard to what’s going to happen to the American worker,” said Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), who is staunchly opposed to setting a corporate tax rate higher than 20 percent.
Since it’s a known lie that “This is hugely stimulative with regard to what’s going to happen to the American worker,” a lie that’s played out again and again with disastrous effects, really what Perdue is saying there is just “we have to lie better.” Sen. Rob Portman had a similar take—if you poll people about the corporate tax rate using 100 percent Republican messaging, they like it more. But give some Republicans cover of anonymity and they’ll get a little more honest:
Another Republican senator who commented on the condition of anonymity said that “lowering the corporate rate is never popular.”
“Forty-four percent of the country won’t see anything and then they see headlines about a big corporate rate cut,” said the lawmaker, explaining the weak public support for the bill.
Those headlines are exactly what Republicans like Perdue and Portman are trying to figure out how to get around. Change the perception, not the reality. But it’s the reality that’s going to hit the American economy.