Vance argued for higher tax rate on childless Americans in 2021 interview [View all]

Source: ABC News

July 26, 2024, 5:05 AM


As former President Donald Trump's new running mate, JD Vance, faces renewed scrutiny over his previous comments criticizing childless individuals, an unearthed 2021 interview shows the Ohio senator advocating for higher taxes on Americans without children. The comments came in a 2021 episode of The Charlie Kirk Show podcast, where Kirk, the CEO of the conservative student organization Turning Point USA, was discussing how Republicans could shift public perception of certain conservative ideas from "unthinkable" to accepted policy.

"So JD ... what are you going to do to change this conversation? Everything we have to do should be about moving ideas from unthinkable, to sensible, to popular, to policy," said Kirk, according to a video of the interview obtained by ABC News.

In response, Vance, who at the time had not yet officially launched his 2022 Senate campaign, suggested that the country needed to "reward the things that we think are good" and "punish the things that we think are bad" -- before suggesting that individuals without children should be taxed at a higher rate than those with children.

"So, you talk about tax policy, let's tax the things that are bad and not tax the things that are good," Vance said in the interview, which is no longer public on Kirk's channel. "If you are making $100,000, $400,000 a year and you've got three kids, you should pay a different, lower tax rate than if you are making the same amount of money and you don't have any kids. It's that simple."

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/vance-argued-higher-tax-rate-childless-americans-2021/story?id=112284318

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Last I saw, there was a separate IRS "filing status" called "SINGLE" that has a higher tax rate than any other category.