Appearing as a guest on Saturday's MSNBC Live, frequent Republican guest and MSNBC contributor Michael Steele was critical of Republicans pushing to cut taxes and blamed GOP tax cuts for making Democrats "have to raise" taxes later. He also declared that, while congressional Republicans present the tax cut plan as a "Christmas present," it actually amounts to "coal."
Host Alex Witt was also befuddled at why people believe "trickle-down economics" works as she claimed that "we've not seen it work before."
After Witt began the segment by citing a New York Times/Survey Monkey poll finding most Americans oppose the tax cuts, Steele was negative on the tax plan and ended up complaining: "But this is a political grab as much as it is a reform of tax legislation. And I think it's important for people to understand -- and they seemingly do -- that there are some down sides to this that folks aren't being very honest about now."
Host Witt jumped in to complain about the Ronald Reagan tax cuts of the 1980s:
Well, yeah, I mean, the last time we did this and had massive tax overhaul was in the Reagan era so, I mean, you look at that, and you're basically kicking the can down the road since these aren't permanent. They expire in what, seven or eight years, so you're dooming whoever is in power in Congress or who's in the White House to potentially -- if there's not this extraordinary growth that's being promised here -- raise taxes on everybody like that's going to go over like a lead balloon.
Neither Witt nor Steele recalled the 1980s economic boom, or the substantial increase in tax revenues that happened after the Reagan tax cuts. Steele blamed Republicans for Democrats having to raise taxes:
And that actually, Alex, has been somewhat the cycle as we've seen. Republicans have cut taxes, and Democrat administrations have had to come in and raise them. We saw it with Clinton after Reagan -- we saw it with Obama after Bush. And so now the question becomes: Do we want to continue that cycle?
He then complained about the "conservatives that I helped get elected" pushing the tax cut plan, which he referred to as a "tax increase." Steele:
I love the idea of cutting taxes and having, you know, average Americans keep more in their pockets every pay period, but there are also costs that come with that. And saddling $1.5 trillion on the backs of future generations is not the way to do it, and it just shocks me still that the very conservatives that I helped get elected in 2010. The fiscal hawks who came to Washington to say, "We will not spend one dime more than the American people can afford," have just signed off on a $1.5 trillion tax increase on those very same Americans.
The MSNBC Republican soon characterized the tax cut plan as "coal" instead of a Christmas gift:
Right now, you have a party in desperation for a win. They want to get out of this year as soon as fast as they can with a pat on their back to say, "Gee, look what we finally did," so they can go into next year making the case to people who are already on shaky ground with the party in terms of supporting them in 2018 and say, "We have given you the best Christmas present we could possibly give you, and that is a massive tax cut," without letting them know that when you unwrap this thing, it may actually contain coal.
Witt concluded the segment by taking another shot at supply-side economics: "You still have to explain to me how trickle-down economics is going to work in this effect because we've not seen it work before."
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Saturday, December 16, MSNBC Live with Alex Witt:
12:14 p.m. ET
ALEX WITT: I want to get right into this New York Times / Survey Monkey poll. Here are the numbers which show a majority, 57 percent of Americans, they disapprove of this tax plan -- 37 percent approve. The President's calling this the greatest Christmas present, but are Americans willing to say, "Yeeaah, no thanks." What do you think?
MICHAEL STEELE, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, I think Americans have done something that they have learned to do from the Obamacare era, and that's actually just sort of figure out what's in the bill since our legislators seemingly don't really pay that much attention to what's actually in the bill. And they've discerned for themselves that this is not something that's going to necessarily be beneficial to them. Certainly not long-term. I mean, I think folks understand that all these, you know, all these tax cuts that are being trumpeted by my party go away in 2025.
And they've got these little caveats in there saying, "We'll revisit this -- we'll see where we are in the economy," and all this other things. But the expectation is this is going to be massive growth off of this because, yeah, we have been in a sluggish growth period -- there's no doubt about that. Wall Street has done very well, main street not so much. But there are ways in which conservative, you know, fiscally conservative Republicans in the past would have approached this a lot differently. But this is a political grab as much as it is a reform of tax legislation. And I think it's important for people to understand -- and they seemingly do -- that there are some down sides to this that folks aren't being very honest about now.
WITT: Well, yeah, I mean, the last time we did this and had massive tax overhaul was in the Reagan era --
STEELE: Right.
WITT: -- so, I mean, you look at that, and you're basically kicking the can down the road since these aren't permanent. They expire in what, seven or eight years, so you're dooming whoever is in power in Congress or who's in the White House to potentially -- if there's not this extraordinary growth that's being promised here -- raise taxes on everybody like that's going to go over like a lead balloon.
STEELE: And that actually, Alex, has been somewhat the cycle as we've seen. Republicans have cut taxes, and Democrat administrations have had to come in and raise them. We saw it with Clinton after Reagan -- we saw it with Obama after Bush. And so now the question becomes: Do we want to continue that cycle? There was a smarter way to do this.
I love the idea of cutting taxes and having, you know, average Americans keep more in their pockets every pay period, but there are also costs that come with that. And saddling $1.5 trillion on the backs of future generations is not the way to do it, and it just shocks me still that the very conservatives that I helped get elected in 2010. The fiscal hawks who came to Washington to say, "We will not spend one dime more than the American people can afford," have just signed off on a $1.5 trillion tax increase on those very same Americans.
WITT: I know. That's remarkable.
STEELE: It's amazing.
(...)
STEELE: Right now, you have a party in desperation for a win. They want to get out of this year as soon as fast as they can with a pat on their back to say, "Gee, look what we finally did," so they can go into next year making the case to people who are already on shaky ground with the party in terms of supporting them in 2018 and say, "We have given you the best Christmas present we could possibly give you, and that is a massive tax cut," without letting them know that when you unwrap this thing, it may actually contain coal.
And that's the problem that the party's going to have to deal with as people go through next year and really drill down on how this affects them, then realize that with respect to their state and local taxes -- their property taxes and other things that are impacted -- they're going to come on the short end.
(...)
WITT: You still have to explain to me how trickle-down economics is going to work in this effect because we've not seen it work before.
