Rep. Don Bacon backed Trump’s tax cuts for the 1%

Republican Rep. Don Bacon voted for then-President Donald Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy in 2017 and hasn’t backed down from that support as Nebraska’s low- and middle-income workers have been forced to shoulder the financial burden.

Meanwhile, Democratic state Sen. Tony Vargas, Bacon’s opponent in the Omaha area’s 2nd Congressional District race, lists tax cuts for small businesses and working families as a top issue on his campaign website.

Bacon voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which is expected to add nearly $2 trillion to the deficit by 2028. And Trump has signaled that he’ll push to make the tax cuts permanent if he takes back the White House.

Bacon’s campaign did not respond to an email from the Nebraska Independent seeking comment. But he recently sponsored bills to lower taxes on tips and income from second jobs.

According to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Trump tax cuts were “skewed to the rich.”

“Households with incomes in the top 1 percent will receive an average tax cut of more than $60,000 in 2025, compared to an average tax cut of less than $500 for households in the bottom 60 percent, according to the Tax Policy Center,” the analysis said. “As a share of after-tax income, tax cuts at the top — for both households in the top 1 percent and the top 5 percent — are more than triple the total value of the tax cuts received for people with incomes in the bottom 60 percent.” 

In Nebraska, according to the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the average tax cut for the top 1% of wage earners was $50,750, while the average tax cut for Nebraska’s working and middle class was just $753. The advocacy organization said the cuts also caused the average Affordable Care Act health insurance premium in Nebraska to jump by $3,070. That was caused by undermining enforcement of the ACA’s individual mandates and threatening to stop billions of dollars in cost-sharing reduction payments that help lower consumers’ deductibles and co-payments. 

The Center for American Progress, separate from the Action Fund advocacy arm, found that more than 10 million American families saw a tax hike as a result of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.

Steve Wamhoff, who wrote a study for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that CAP used in analyzing the results of the 2017 tax bill, said in 2019: “The real problem is that the vast majority of the tax cuts went to people who do not need help. Half the tax cuts went to the richest five percent, with about a quarter going to the richest one percent. Those among the top five percent got bigger tax cuts not just in dollar terms but even when measured as a share of their total income.”

Vargas said in an email to the Nebraska Independent, “Don Bacon’s time in Washington has done nothing but hurt hardworking Nebraskans.

“He voted with Donald Trump to create more tax loopholes for millionaires and corporations and to raise taxes on the rest of us, supports cuts to Social Security, and voted against lowering the cost of insulin,” Vargas said. “As a state senator, I’ve voted for over $6 billion in tax cuts, including the two largest property tax cuts in state history. In Congress, I’ll support a middle-class tax cut and will work to lower the cost of prescription drugs, drugs childcare, and housing.”

Vargas came within less than 3 percentage points of beating Bacon in 2022. A poll conducted in late August by Split Ticket and SurveyUSA showed Vargas leading Bacon 46% to 40%.

The University of Virginia’s Center for Politics has moved the Vargas-Bacon race from “Toss-up” to “Leans Democratic.”