A bill to implement a national sales tax in place of the federal income tax system has become an attack line for former President Trump as he aims to tear down Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Republican presidential primary.
But the attack line based on the FairTax bill, which would overhaul the current system and implement a 23-percent sales tax nationwide, is having little effect on the policy in Congress, where many Trump supporters who co-sponsor the legislation still support the idea.
“A consumption tax is designed to be nonregressive,” said Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), a FairTax co-sponsor and Trump supporter. “Everybody’s paying the same tax, so the rich can’t avoid it,”
He brushed off the attacks.
“Everybody’s gonna campaign the way they’re gonna campaign,” Biggs said.
The FairTax bill is popular enough that action on the legislation was a part of negotiations between conservatives and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as he fought for the gavel in January, though it is unclear if or when it might get a vote.
Last month, Trump’s campaign and MAGA Inc., a PAC supporting his candidacy, started referencing DeSantis’s support for the FairTax from when he was in Congress in attack ads, saying that DeSantis wanted to add a 23-percent national sales tax that would “make families pay more.”
MAGA Inc. spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt wrote in an op-ed earlier this month that the FairTax would “disproportionally hurt working and middle-class families, citing a Brookings Institute analysis that found that the lowest 90% of earners would see an increase in taxes under the system.
It is an attack that DeSantis had faced before, from 2018 Florida GOP gubernatorial primary opponent Adam Putnam.
DeSantis’s campaign argued that the FairTax attacks are unfair because they lack context by not mentioning elimination of income taxes and other measures.
“The plan also sought to end the IRS which, at the time, was being weaponized by the Obama administration. To describe only part of the plan in an attack is dishonest,” DeSantis campaign press secretary Bryan Griffin said in a statement, also noting tax relief measures from DeSantis and “Florida’s favorable tax climate” encouraging record migration to the state.
Pro-DeSantis PAC Never Back Down also noted that Trump himself previously floated the idea of a FairTax or flat tax. The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this story, and the MAGA Inc. PAC did not comment.
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), lead sponsor of the FairTax bill, said he was “a little disappointed” in the FairTax attack ads.
“It’s a shame that it would be used for politics. I still think it’s a good idea. Of course it needs work. It needs to be refined,” Carter said. “But you know, it puts people in charge. It gives them the ability to decide what taxes they want to pay. I think the vast majority of people prefer a consumption tax to a property tax or an income tax.”
One Trump supporter, though, did remove himself as a co-sponsor of the FairTax bill in the days after the attacks on DeSantis started — and after a pro-DeSantis PAC had noted his support of the bill.
Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) said that he took himself off the bill because he confused the FairTax, a system that replaces federal income and payroll taxes with a national sales tax, with a flat tax, which would apply a single tax rate across the board regardless of income level.
“When all of that came up, and we were getting inquiries in the office, I looked. I was like, ‘Oh, that’s not what I thought it was,’” Steube said.
Other Trump supporters are remaining co-sponsors of the FairTax bill.
“That’s far more efficient, way less bureaucracy,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) said of the FairTax. “But in campaigns, you know, you’re gonna have these policy differences and these political differences.”
The pro-DeSantis PAC flaunted the Trump supporters who are standing by the bill.
“Trump’s attack on DeSantis is so bogus, not even his allies in Congress are willing to back him up on it,” said Matt Wolking, strategic communications director for Never Back Down.
With the FairTax caught in the political crosshairs, its future in the House — despite any agreements struck with McCarthy — is uncertain.
Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), who was among McCarthy’s initial opponents in January, said that while he wasn’t among those demanding action on the FairTax Act in those talks, it was one of the agreements McCarthy made in order to win the gavel.
“I was not personally an advocate for the inclusion of that. But it was one of the terms,” Bishop said.
Other Republicans noted that other commitments that McCarthy made with those who withheld support for him, such a vote on term limits, have also not yet occurred.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) told Politico in January that he would have a hearing on the legislation, but the committee did not respond to an inquiry on its status.
Rep. Richard Neal (Mass.), senior Democrat on the Ways and Means panel, said he hasn’t been made aware of the Republicans’ plans for moving the FairTax bill through the committee. But given the unpopularity of those bills among the public, he said he welcomes them.
“I’m hoping they bring up some of their tax bills,” Neal said with a smile.
Mike Lillis and Mychael Schnell contributed.