It’s no wonder Vice President Kamala Harris is ducking interviews—she doesn’t exactly shine when faced with straightforward questions. Case in point: her latest appearance on MSNBC, where she had a chance to explain the administration’s plans for tax hikes but, as usual, served up a hefty helping of word salad. When MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle asked how Harris planned to fund big government programs like the child tax credit and first-time homebuyer assistance without hiking corporate taxes or borrowing more money, the VP did what she does best: dance around the question.
Ruhle asked a simple question: if Republicans take control of the Senate and corporate tax hikes are off the table, where does the money come from? Harris’s response? More of the same vague rhetoric about “making sure corporations and billionaires pay their fair share.” It’s the typical line—no one’s mad at success, but somehow success always comes with a hefty bill, courtesy of the IRS.
Ruhle didn’t let her off that easy, though. She raised the very real possibility that companies might just pack up and leave if corporate taxes go up. Harris’s answer? Another round of vagueness about how she’s talked to CEOs, and surprise, surprise, these business leaders apparently support her vision of higher taxes and more government spending because it “invests in the middle class” and “brings down costs.” That’s quite the claim, but it seems like Harris is betting on CEOs suddenly caring more about paying taxes than keeping their companies afloat.
And then came the spin about unemployment. Harris had the nerve to claim that pandemic unemployment levels were somehow equivalent to those of the Great Depression. Sure, unemployment spiked during the lockdowns, mostly in states governed by her own party. But by the time Biden was sworn in, unemployment had already dropped to 6.3%, a far cry from Great Depression numbers. Yet, the administration continues to boast about “creating” millions of jobs, when in reality, these jobs were simply returning after the pandemic.
Of course, there was no pushback from MSNBC on any of these claims. Harris happily perpetuated the fiction that the Biden administration was somehow responsible for a miraculous job recovery, when it was just the economy bouncing back from government-imposed shutdowns. But why let facts get in the way of a good story, especially when there’s no one in the room willing to call her out on it?
