Washington Examiner, April 2022
The White House has started targeting Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott in an attempt to make taxes a wedge issue for the 2022 midterm elections. But with rampant inflation and doubts about President Joe Biden’s ability to manage the economy, the White House and Democrats may struggle to ensure their tax messaging resonates with the public.
After months of Democratic National Committee-led attacks, the White House seized on two components of Scott’s 11-point “Rescue America Plan” for the first time this week, coinciding with Tax Day. They include Scott’s opinion that more of the electorate needs “skin” in the tax “game,” contending that half the country pays no income tax, and a proposal that laws, such as those establishing Social Security and Medicare, should be renewed every five years.
Taxes matter because they have ramifications for large swaths of the public, according to Northeastern University’s political science chairman, Costas Panagopoulos. “It is especially top of mind on Tax Day, so tapping into the salience of the issue on this day in particular to accentuate fundamental differences between Democratic and Republican approaches to tax policy is understandable,” he said.
