Vice presidential candidate JD Vance as soon as mentioned childless folks ought to pay extra taxes.
Vance made the touch upon a podcast in 2021. He mentioned childless adults who make the identical amount of cash as adults with youngsters ought to pay greater taxes. He didn’t elaborate on specifics. (Taxpayers with youngsters already obtain tax advantages not accessible to the childless: U.S. tax code has included little one tax credit since 1997.)
Because the 2024 U.S. presidential election gathered momentum, the marketing campaign of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris shared a clip of Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance supposedly discussing taxes for childless folks
As of this writing, that X submit by the Harris marketing campaign had 3.2 million views and 31,000 likes. Different social media customers shared the video of Vance making the alleged remark, too, on platforms resembling X and Reddit.
Vance did make the assertion
He mentioned the system would “reward issues that we predict are good and punish the issues that we predict are unhealthy,” with out elaborating on specifics. Taxpayers with youngsters already obtain tax advantages not accessible to the childless: U.S. tax code has included little one tax credit since 1997.
As of this writing, the in-question episode of The Charlie Kirk Present was not accessible on-line, together with on Apple Podcasts and the present’s web site, the place the present’s different episodes exist. For causes which are unknown, it appeared the present took down video and audio of the episode. We reached out to Charlie Kirk to ask why the episode was now not accessible, in addition to for its response to the Harris marketing campaign resurfacing it in fall 2024, and we are going to replace this report when, or if, we obtain a response.
Nonetheless, American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal political motion committee and opposition analysis group, appeared to have saved the footage:
Additional, we discovered the episode’s full audio file and transcript on Podscribe (archived), a marketing-intelligence software for podcast promoting. The audio was uploaded on March 20, 2021. Snopes archived both the audio and transcript to our public drive.
Within the 55-minute interview between Kirk and Vance, they talked about quite a lot of subjects, together with the consequences of globalization, the decline of the center class, manufacturing within the U.S. and the financial system at giant. Vance additionally outlined a plan to tax issues he considered as “unhealthy” at the next price than issues he considered as “good.”
Right here is the alternate (emphasis ours) with the remark about taxes for childless folks verses mother and father:
Kirk: As a result of we’re really not in a political second. We’re in an Overton window second with every thing we have now to do needs to be about transferring PO transferring concepts from unthinkable to wise, to in style to coverage. That is actually the second we’re in. There is no, there is no committee work getting completed. There is no markups. Individuals say, Oh, you may solely be a Senator. In the event you’ve been there. None of that is true. This can be a PR stunt is absolutely what’s occurring. What are you going to do to assist contribute positively to that drawback?
Vance: No, I believe it is easy. And I am going to return to one thing I mentioned earlier about, we have to reward the issues that we predict are good and punish the issues that we predict are unhealthy. So that you discuss tax coverage, let’s tax the issues which are unhealthy and never tax the issues which are good. In the event you’re making a $100,000, $400,000 a 12 months, and you have got three youngsters, you need to pay a distinct decrease tax price than should you’re making the identical quantity of mon
ey, and you haven’t any youngsters. It is that straightforward. Kirk: I completely agree.
In sum, he argued the tax code ought to reward wished behaviors (having youngsters) and penalize undesirable ones (not having youngsters) with tax incentives.
Nonetheless, the overall idea was not revolutionary. On the time of the podcast episode, tax code already prescribed advantages for taxpayers with youngsters. Congress permitted little one tax credit in 1997 with bipartisan assist.
Since 2017, families with children claim a yearly tax credit of $2,000 for every little one underneath 17 years outdated who’s a U.S. citizen. Additional, taxpayers can declare a tax credit for the care of children under 13 years old.
Throughout her 2024 presidential marketing campaign, Harris proposed expanding those benefits with a $6,000 tax credit for newborns and a $3,600 little one tax credit score. In the meantime, whereas campaigning with former President Donald Trump, Vance has proposed a extra aggressive plan: In August 2024, Vance mentioned he’d wish to expand the child tax credit to $5,000 per little one.
The quote about taxes was not the primary assertion by the vice presidential candidate about childless adults that we have fact-checked. In July 2024, we confirmed rumors he said parents should have a bigger say in democracy than non-parents.
