As the media switch from Regime to Resistance, so switches the way legislation is framed and reported to the American public. Viewers of CNN's State of the Union witnessed such an example in real time, when host Jake Tapper and Senator Jim Banks (R-IN) discussed the renewal of portions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: more commonly known as the Trump tax cuts.
Watch as Tapper tries to frame the renewal of the law’s income tax provisions, which will soon sunset, as tax cuts for the rich, only to get stuffed by Banks (click "expand" to view transcript):
WATCH: Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) stuffs Jake Tapper's attempt at framing the renewal of the 2017 Taxes and Jobs Act with the "tax cuts for the wealthy" talking point. Denial of the premise is essential to engaging an adversarial Regime Media pic.twitter.com/g378MJwDqL
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) January 5, 2025
JAKE TAPPER: But you talked about the Trump tax cuts on working class Americans, but you're not…but the Trump tax cuts are not only for working class Americans. They're for everybody. Right? Anybody who pays taxes, including people in higher income brackets like you or me, theoretically. Right? I mean, so so is it- you're not only talking about having the ones for working class people in that bill. It's for all of them.
JIM BANKS: It’s for everybody. Go back to 2017. I was a freshman member of the House and we passed the Trump tax cuts, making the corporate rates permanent.
TAPPER: Right.
BANKS: But not the not the rates on working class families and the individual rates, the pass through rates. That's small businesses.
TAPPER: But that’s all people. That's all incomes.
BANKS: Small businesses. I mean, that's what the reconciliation package has to include to make those tax cuts permanent. Otherwise, working class families are going to take a massive hit, a tax, they're going to have their taxes raised if we don't make those tax cuts…
TAPPER: I'm not advocating one way or the other.
BANKS: But I can't- But it's an important point because I can't imagine that Democrats would vote against that.
TAPPER: Well, I'm just- but my only point is that it's- it's all of the income tax cuts, not just the ones for working class people.
BANKS: I don't think Democrats want to vote against…
TAPPER: Okay.
BANKS: …making tax cuts permanent on working class families.
TAPPER: You take my…you take my…
BANKS: But I get your point.
TAPPER: Okay.
The interview opened with discussion of a possible reconciliation package to address President Donald Trump’s legislative priorities. Per NBC News:
At a closed-door House Republican retreat Saturday morning, newly re-elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said President-elect Donald Trump was in favor of passing a single reconciliation bill that would address his priorities, including border security, energy and an extension of his signature 2017 tax law, two sources with direct knowledge told NBC News.
Since the November election, when Republicans took back control of the White House and the Senate and retained control of the House, GOP lawmakers have publicly debated whether to attempt to pass one or two reconciliation bills to advance their agenda.
Reconciliation allows Congress to pass party-line policies related to taxes and spending with simple majority votes, suspending the Senate’s usual 60-vote threshold needed to pass legislation.
Reconciliation was the meat-and-potatoes of what Tapper discussed with Banks, but “tax cuts for the rich” was the frame. What often gets left out of discussion of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is that the income tax provisions were made to sunset in order to garner Democrat votes for passage, unlike the corporate rates which were permanent once the bill passed.
Tapper took a couple of passes at the class warfare route, but was quickly shut down by Banks. In this exchange, Banks demonstrates that the best way to stuff these narratives is to reject the question’s initial premise.
This won’t be the last time the media tries to inject a class warfare narrative when discussing the renewal of the Trump tax cuts, which benefited taxpayers across the entire income spectrum. But as Senator Banks demonstrates, there is no need to accept narrative as fact.
Click “expand” to view the full relevant transcript as aired on CNN State of the Union on Sunday, January 5th, 2025:
JAKE TAPPER: So in the past you have been critical, a bit, of the reconciliation process, which is- requires only 51 votes in the Senate instead of the 60 vote threshold. You have said that you've criticized Democrats for passing legislation, quote, “on entirely partisan lines”, unquote, and trying to, quote, “ram a partisan spending bill down the throats of the American people”, not talking about the substance of the bills, but the process. How is this different?
JIM BANKS: Well, it's very different. If you go back to what the Democrats did with the Inflation Control Act, which actually increased inflation, and the American Rescue Plan, which was the Green New Deal on steroids, the biggest expansion of the federal government since LBJ that happened through the reconciliation process. Jake, I actually expect that there will be Democrats who will come on board to support these efforts to secure the border, to make the Trump tax cuts on working class families permanent, which is what we're talking about in the reconciliation bill. I expect after this last election, a historic mandate for President Trump winning the popular vote. Working class voters like my dad, a retired union factory worker that used to vote Democrat, who's now a Trump Republican- the Democrats lost voters like my dad because they're not focused on the issues that Donald Trump is. I expect there could be a number of Democrats who come on board with the reconciliation process and help- help pass it, because the American- that's what the American people want us to do. And if the Democrats ever want to be competitive again, I expect they'll focus on those issues.
TAPPER: But you talked about the Trump tax cuts on working class Americans, but you're not…but the Trump tax cuts are not only for working class Americans. They're for everybody. Right? Anybody who pays taxes, including people in higher income brackets like you or me, theoretically. Right? I mean, so so is it- you're not only talking about having the ones for working class people in that bill. It's for all of them.
BANKS: It’s for everybody. Go back to 2017. I was a freshman member of the House and we passed the Trump tax cuts, making the corporate rates permanent.
TAPPER: Right.
BANKS: But not the not the rates on working class families and the individual rates, the pass through rates. That's small businesses.
TAPPER: But that’s all people. That's all incomes.
BANKS: Small businesses. I mean, that's what the reconciliation package has to include to make those tax cuts permanent. Otherwise, working class families are going to take a massive hit, a tax, they're going to have their taxes raised if we don't make those tax cuts…
TAPPER: I'm not advocating one way or the other.
BANKS: But I can't- But it's an important point because I can't imagine that Democrats would vote against that.
TAPPER: Well, I'm just- but my only point is that it's- it's all of the income tax cuts, not just the ones for working class people.
BANKS: I don't think Democrats want to vote against…
TAPPER: Okay.
BANKS: …making tax cuts permanent on working class families.
TAPPER: You take my…you take my…
BANKS: But I get your point.
TAPPER: Okay.