From Democrats.org: FACT CHECK: Trump-Vance Ticket Stands Against the PRO Act And For an Anti-Worker Project 2025 Agenda
While Labor Day has come and gone, the information contained in this post is as timely as ever--maybe even more so as early voting is underway and election day is next Tuesday.
Given that JD Vance famously runs his own X account, we wanted to provide a few feedback notes for him to make sure his Labor Day post was accurate:
HERE’S THE FACTS: Donald Trump was one of the most anti-worker and anti-union presidents in American history – and his running mate JD Vance stands firmly against the PRO Act, the “holy grail” of the labor movement to protect unions.
Politico: “Vance has consistently opposed the PRO Act, the ‘holy grail of pro-union labor reform’ that organized labor and its allies on the Hill have been fighting for over two years to get passed. … Vance’s skepticism of the PRO Act is part of a more fundamental skepticism that he harbors toward organized labor.”
Fast Company: “Vance also voted in favor of a resolution to strike down the NLRB’s updated joint-employer rule, which would have given workers more leverage when organizing at companies—like Amazon—that rely heavily on third-party contractors, by forcing both employers to participate in labor negotiations.”
Trump: “I know the unions. They’re dues-sucking people. They just want their dues and they couldn’t care less.”
New York Times: “Does [Trump] support unions? He has had ‘great success’ in New York building with unions and also in Florida without unions. ‘If I had my choice,’ he said, ‘I think I’d take it without.’”
Associated Press: “During Trump’s presidency, the National Labor Relations Board reversed several key rulings that made it easier for small unions to organize, strengthened the bargaining rights of franchise workers and provided protection against anti-union measures for employees.
“The Supreme Court’s conservative majority — including three justices that Trump nominated — overturned a decades-old pro-union decision in 2018 involving fees paid by government workers. The justices in 2021 rejected a California regulation giving unions access to farm property so they could organize workers.”
Trump recently celebrated firing striking workers, and Vance shamelessly defended his comments.
Newsweek: “Donald Trump Cheers Elon Musk Over Firing Workers: ‘You’re the Greatest!’”
Politico: “Vice presidential candidate JD Vance defended Donald Trump’s comments about firing striking workers during a rally in Michigan.”
New Republic: “J.D. Vance Makes Huge Mistake Trying to Defend Trump’s Workers Comment”
The Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda would raise taxes for the middle class while gifting tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations and threatening to supercharge inflation.
Center for American Progress: “Project 2025’s Tax Plan Would Raise Taxes on the Middle Class and Cut Taxes for the Wealthy”
“In [Project 2025], far-right extremist plans are outlined that raise taxes on low- and middle-income households to finance tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations. Project 2025’s tax plan includes an ‘intermediate tax reform’ that includes changes to tax brackets and corporate tax cuts that would shift the tax burden toward middle-income households …
“The shift toward a flat consumption tax while eliminating income taxes would lead to an average $5,900 tax increase for the middle 20 percent of households and an average $2 million tax cut for the top 0.1 percent. … Project 2025 does not stop at cutting taxes for wealthy individuals; it also proposes an array of tax cuts for corporations. … This would amount to a $24 billion tax cut for the Fortune 100, the 100 largest companies in America.”
CBS News: “Millions of low- and middle-class households would likely face significantly higher taxes under the Project 2025’s proposals.”
New York Times: “Senator JD Vance of Ohio, former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate, denied in an interview with NBC News on Sunday that tariffs had caused higher costs for Americans, as economists have documented.”
Vance on Trump’s plan that would raise tariffs and raise costs for hardworking Americans: “This is a fascinating proposal and we could talk for a while about it.”
Project 2025: “The corporate income tax rate should be reduced to 18 percent.”
Vance: “I’ve reviewed a lot of [Project 2025]. There are some good ideas in there.”
Axios: “Sixteen Nobel prize-winning economists are jumping into the presidential campaign with a stark warning: Former President Trump’s plans would reignite inflation and cause lasting harm to the global economy if he wins in November.”
Wall Street Journal: “A drumbeat of reports from Wall Street economists have warned that Trump’s plans could substantially slow economic growth while driving up consumer prices.”
The Atlantic: “Trump’s Plan to Supercharge Inflation”
Washington Post: “Trump and his advisers have discussed deeper cuts to both individual and corporate tax rates that would build on his controversial 2017 tax law … Further cutting corporate taxes … would primarily benefit large firms.”
Trump’s failed economic agenda resulted in broken promises, a skyrocketing deficit, and new incentives for companies to ship jobs overseas.
Vance: “The left attacked Donald Trump for those tax cuts said they would make the deficit worse when in reality we took in more revenue because the government got out of the way on the regulatory side and the tax cuts spurred a lot of growth which means more people working, which meant more economic production which meant the entire economy was healthier … I think that we have a pretty common sense regulatory and tax agenda.”
New York Times: “The 2017 corporate tax cuts signed into law by Mr. Trump have not increased government revenue … In fact, they have had the opposite effect.”
Washington Post: “Trump promised this Wisconsin town a manufacturing boom. It never arrived.”
The Guardian: “Donald Trump’s $1.5tn tax cuts have helped billionaires pay a lower rate than the working class for the first time in history.”
CBS News: “Two years after Trump tax cuts, middle-class Americans are falling behind”
Washington Post Analysis: “One of President Donald Trump’s lesser-known but profoundly damaging legacies will be the explosive rise in the national debt that occurred on his watch. The financial burden that he’s inflicted on our government will wreak havoc for decades, saddling our kids and grandkids with debt. The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office. … The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration.”
Washington Post: “Trump promised ‘America First’ would keep jobs here. But the tax plan might push them overseas.”