In a deep dive into how Republicans are dealing with voter anger over seeing their IRS tax refunds shrink due to Donald Trump's tax cuts, Senior Republican Senator Chuck Grassley (IA) snapped at reporters asking about the turmoil that has voters furious with the GOP.
According to a report at Politico, Republicans are frustrated with how voters are misreading the changes, saying they fail to understand that their withholding was decreased leading to bigger paychecks and less money being refunded back to them after they make their annual filing to the IRS.
On Friday a Treasury official attempted to calm the waters, releasing a statement that read: “As we have noted, data this early in the filing season has many aberrations and isn’t useful in drawing broad conclusions on refunds overall. There are many factors that impact refunds on a weekly basis that will normalize over time and lead to useful conclusions."
Democrats are gleeful at the botched handling of the new tax plan.
“Republicans deliberately made a decision to goose the tax bill so they could get credit in the fall of 2018 and in effect saying it’s a long time until the spring of 2019 and maybe everybody would forget,” explained Senate Finance Committee member Ron Wyden (D-OR). “I’m not forgetting.”
As for Grassley, the irascible Republican penned an op-ed with House Ways and Means ranking member Kevin Brady (R-TX), that attempted to explain to angry voters that smaller refunds are the direct result of not overpaying.
“The size of your tax refund has nothing to do with your overall tax bill,” the two wrote in USA Today on Wednesday. “It merely reflects what you overpaid the IRS in your paychecks last year.”
According to Politico, Grassley was less conciliatory when previously asked about taxpayer discontent.
“Isn’t it kind of stupid to look at a refund, what your refund is?” he blurted. "That doesn’t tell you what taxes you pay."
You can read more about GOP efforts to get past voter anger here.
