Vice president touts tax cuts in visit to Ariz.
Facing middling enthusiasm for recently enacted tax cuts and after another underwhelming showing by a Republican in a special election, Vice President Mike Pence came to Tempe Tuesday to buck up GOP morale and raise money for the party.
Pence arrived touting the tax cuts, which have not been a resounding winner with the public.
But his message of prosperity resonated with the throngs of Arizona supporters on Tuesday, although it was on the tail end of a speech that in-
voked illegal immigration, the administration’s plan for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and the appointments of conservative federal judges.
“This president promised to cut taxes across the board for working families and businesses and ranchers and farmers,” Pence told hundreds of Arizona supporters at a conference center at the Phoenix Marriott Resort Tempe at the Buttes. “And just over four months ago ... President Trump signed the largest tax cuts and tax reform in the history of this country.”
The crowd chanted: “Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump!”
Pence said the legislation is making “a remarkable” difference in the lives of everyday Arizonans, and that the average workers will see a pay raise of about $4,000 yearly.
“Jobs are coming back,” he said. “Confidence is coming back. America is back! And we’re just getting started.”
Pence also offered his prayers for Sen. John McCain, the six-term Arizona Republican who is battling a deadly form of brain cancer, and his wife, Cindy.
The vice president’s trip to Arizona follows similar campaign-style appearances in cities across the U.S., including Milwaukee; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Indianapolis. He was also set to attend at least one political fundraiser benefiting GOP Senate candidates.
Overall, last year’s tax overhaul is more popular than not, with 44 percent favoring the tax changes compared with 39 percent who oppose the changes, according to an online Morning Consult/Politico poll released last week. But there are signs the support is tepid and possibly fleeting.
The same online poll of 1,993 registered voters found that 55 percent surveyed said they had not seen a boost to their paychecks as a result of the tax changes. Another 23 percent were unsure.
Even more troubling, opposition to the tax law has been growing each month, the pollsters found. In January, 34 percent of those polled opposed the changes; it stood at 39 percent in April.
The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Republican-allied groups have started funding ads across the country aimed at touting the tax cuts. That’s a shift from a recent special election in Pennsylvania, where the GOP abandoned its tax-cut sales pitch near the end of an electoral nail-biter.
In Tempe, those in the crowd wore Make America Great Again shirts and hats, Trump campaign shirts, leather biker cuts, golf shirts and red shirts in support of higher teacher pay as part of the #RedForEd movement that has shut down schools across Arizona since last Thursday.
Pence opened his remarks by touting the leadership of his friend, Gov. Doug Ducey, who introduced him with a full-throated endorsement of the Trump administration. Ducey is facing re-election this year.
Prior to Pence’s remarks, former Gov. Jan Brewer lit up the crowd with a call to build a border wall, the cornerstone of Trump’s agenda.
The crowd jumped to its feet, shouting, “Build the wall! Build the wall!”
Brewer replied, “You’re right — and it’s going to get done!”
The event also featured a discussion of the tax overhaul with U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and three Arizona business owners who played up the impact of the overhaul on small businesses.
The moderator told the crowd they would not learn about the true impact of the legislation from “mainstream media.”
As the crowd waited for the event to begin, two giant TVs played videos of Trump and other Republicans touting the bill.
“There has never been a better time to start living the American dream,” blared one video featuring Trump’s State of the Union remarks.
The videos were sprinkled in between rock music, including Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing,” Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing,” and the twangy country hit by Brooks & Dunn, “Only in America”.
The event was sponsored by America First Policies, a dark-money group that supports Trump’s agenda.
The group has held similar events in cities across the nation, characterizing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 as legislation that has meaningfully changed the economic prospects for families across America.
Pence and other speakers centered their remarks on how Arizona families and companies are feeling the effects of the legislation.
Biggs said the legislation has resulted in “over $200 million in wage increases and bonuses” and ticked off a list of companies that have affected companies and workers in Arizona.
“This is what happened as a result of a great tax policy in this bill, that you don’t hear much about,” Biggs said.
The congressman said the legislation also created an incentive for parents to work because the legislation defrays child-care costs.
America First Policies noted an Arizona Republic story that reported that utility company Arizona Public Service Co. customers would see an average drop of $5.40 in their bills because of tax reform. Tucson Electric Power Company, meanwhile, “will pass tax reform savings to customers,” the group reported, citing a local newspaper article.
El Mirage-based Sutter Masonry Inc., which employs about 100, increased its hourly wages by $1 and doled out more than $50,000 in total bonuses, according to the group.
U-Haul, which is headquartered in Phoenix, announced it was giving $1,200 in bonuses because of the tax legislation, while Waste Management Inc. said it was giving $2,000 in bonuses.
The group also cited announcements by AT&T, Comcast and Data Sales Co., Inc. about $1,000 bonuses for their employees.
Pence invoked those figures in his remarks, offering a rebuke to those who agree with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, who characterized as “crumbs” the money some workers received from top corporations as a result of the tax legislation.
“I come from the Joseph A. Bank wing of the West Wing,” Pence said. “You guys with me on that? Karen and I always lived on a budget — still do. We had a term for another paycheck at the end of the year: Christmas.”
Anyone dismisses an extra $1,000 as “crumbs,” Pence said, “is out of touch.”
The tax-cut message takes on added importance as Republican prospects for the midterm elections continue to worsen, including in Arizona, a traditional GOP stronghold.
Pence was set to attend a fundraiser for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the arm of the party that works to elect Republicans to the chamber.
On stage, he castigated Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, DAriz., considered her party’s front-runner in the Aug. 28 Democratic Senate primary, for her votes against the tax bill.
“I don’t know about the rest of you,” Pence said, “but I think Arizona deserves better.”
Last week, Republican Debbie Lesko won the special congressional election for the West Valley district by less than 5 percentage points. President Donald Trump won there by 21 percentage points in 2016 and Democrats had not fielded a candidate there since 2012.
The Arizona contest was the ninth straight special federal election nationally in which Democrats significantly improved on their showing over the 2016 elections. That string of results, along with Trump’s relatively low approval ratings and a century of election history, has Republicans across the country worried about their chances of avoiding heavy losses in the midterms.
While Pence traveled to Arizona to help spread the message, he received only limited help in Tempe.
Biggs was the only member of the state’s House delegation to join Pence at the event. Rep. David Schweikert, R-Arizona, who is a Phoenix-area member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, where the tax legislation originated, did not attend.
The tax cuts permanently slashed the top corporate income-tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent and included temporary cuts and expanded deductions for most individuals. The legislation is expected to add $1.5 trillion to the $20 trillion national debt.
The cuts, which are Trump’s only significant legislative victory so far, have already reduced tax bills for corporations by billions of dollars. Some companies have redirected the savings to their employees, often in the form of bonuses and the outcome illustrated on stage in Tempe with Pence.
Far more often, publicly traded companies have bought back portions of their stock or paid investors dividends.
Birinyi Associates, which has tracked buybacks for decades, noted that companies smashed a record for stock buybacks in the first six weeks of the year.
Meanwhile, a Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysis found that fewer than 45 of the 500 big companies that make up the broad Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index have paid out cash bonuses to their workers in the first four months since the new tax law took effect,
USA TODAY reported.
And business investment grew more slowly in the first three months this year than it did in the same period a year ago, according to figures tracked by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Democrats used the occasion to denounce the tax changes and emphasize health care instead.
“Arizonans aren’t buying the lemon Mike Pence is selling. Voters have popped the hood and know what’s really inside the GOP tax scam — policies that gut Medicare and make health care more expensive for families,” said Drew Anderson, a spokesman for the Arizona Democratic Party. “Instead of getting things done for Arizonans, the GOP tax law raises premiums and guts Medicare funding — only feeding into the chaos that has voters fed up with Washington in the first place.”
Pence, however, maintains the legislation has already improved the lives of ordinary Americans.
He noted that at least 45,000 — or 1.6 percent — Arizona workers had already received raises, bonuses or improved benefits because of the tax cut legislation.
In an op-ed for The Arizona Republic, Pence said the law would give “the average Arizona family of four a tax cut of more than $2,100 every single year.”
But averaging the benefits pulls in high-income families that skew the figure upward. The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, which reports to Congress, estimates that fewer than half the nation’s families will get more than $500 annually.