Elizabeth Warren’s Challengers Support GOP Tax Overhaul
Geoff Diehl, John Kingston, and Beth Lindstrom said they approve of the Republican bill.
The Senate passed the GOP’s deeply unpopular tax reform package late Tuesday night by a margin of 51-48. But if any of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s challengers had gotten a vote, the scale would have tipped even further in the Republicans’ favor.
Despite the entire Massachusetts Congressional delegation and Republican Gov. Charlie Baker’s disdain for the overhaul, all three Republicans who have entered the 2018 Senate race said they approve of the tax plan.
“The tax package is a once in a generation opportunity to bolster the economy and grow jobs,” state Rep. Geoff Diehl told State House News Service.
Every single Democratic member of Congress—and a smattering of House Republicans in mostly blue states—voted against the tax bill. Liberals have widely criticized the legislation as a roundabout way to gut Medicare, a short-term break for the middle-class, and a long-term boon for billionaires. Warren’s challengers took a rosier view.
John Kingston, a businessman, told the State House News that though the bill “is far from perfect, it represents a substantive effort to deliver results for all Americans, and that is an accomplishment in the political environment we face today.” Apparently, politicians should be praised for passing legislation that doesn’t harm the constituents of their ideological rivals. Good to know.
Senate hopeful Beth Lindstrom, a former state official and small business owner, also told State House News that she would have voted in favor of the bill and emphasized her commitment to the private sector over Warren’s pro-government stance.
An assessment of the bill from the non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy indicates that roughly 4 in 5 Massachusetts residents will pay lower taxes next year. And yet, other analyses indicate that the actual savings for average Americans will be paltry in comparison to those reaped by the uber-wealthy.
Of course, all three politicians are running as Republicans, so it’s not totally absurd that they would support the party’s legislation. And yet, in a state as blue as Massachusetts, approving of the tax bill is strange political calculus. Bay State voters have a history of electing moderate conservatives like Baker and Mitt Romney, but giving the nod to a Trump-backed tax plan may not play as well here.
