Now that lying has become the organizing principle of the Republican Party, Senator Rick Scott is embracing the strategy in ways that no doubt make Donald Trump beam with pride. Desperate to convince middle and lower class Americans that their taxes will rise under President Biden, Scott is spreading the lie that the recently passed Covid relief bill contains a tax hike on “gig workers and the self-employed.” It’s not true, of course, and Scott has been called out on it. His real worry is that his assets of an estimated quarter of a billion dollars will be taxed at a higher rate, but he knows the average American believes that the rich should, in fact, be taxed at a higher rate after decades of preferential treatment under the tax code. Since the facts don’t support his position, the answer is simple: just make stuff up.
A letter to the editor of the St. Augustine Record of May 7 provides more details about Scott’s big lie.
Senator Rick Scott evidently believes his job is to spread disinformation. In a guest column of April 25 in the Florida Times-Union, and in an email to constituents, Scott alleges that President Joe Biden lied when he promised to not raise taxes on those earning less than $400,000 per year. Scott claims the recently passed Covid relief bill contains a “tax hike on gig workers and the self-employed.” But that statement is totally false. Gig workers, like everybody else, have always been required to pay taxes on their earnings and nothing in the bill raises their tax rates. There is a provision in the bill that requires online companies such as Uber and AirBnb to document payments made to those it hires, just like all other businesses. The net effect is that some workers may be more likely to declare income from these companies because they know there will now be documentation available to the IRS. To claim this is a tax hike is ludicrous. Under Scott’s interpretation, any effort to collect taxes owed to the government is a tax hike.
Though his statement has been thoroughly debunked, Scott and his office have continued to issue statements supporting the lie.