You can tell that former New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie is planning to run for president in 2020 because he’s already using the “socialism” scare word when discussing President Joe Biden’s planned capital gains tax cut to fund infrastructure programs.
But while Christie was spouting talking points, he quickly got his head handed to him by Democratic strategist Angela Rye, who told him and Republican operative Sarah Fagan:
“I think it’s so rich to hear folks talking about Joe Biden’s far-left agenda. If it is too far left to sign 60 executive orders overturning the hatred that was in Donald Trump’s executive orders — at least 23 of them — if it is far left to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, if it’s far left to end the Muslim travel ban, if it is far left to restore the partnership with the World Health Organization then I think most of the country is far left.”
That led Christie to claim that Biden’s proposals aren’t popular with the American people. What he neglected to mention is that a recent poll showed 59% of those surveyed said they support the Biden infrastructure program:
“Look, we can set up strawmen and say he overturned this executive order but that’s not what we’re talking about. The capital gains issue is nothing more than income redistribution. It’s socialism.”
Rye could be heard laughing as Christie spoke, and she was more than ready for him, slapping him down with this retort:
“It’s so interesting to hear this allegation of socialism,” she said. “I know these are buzzwords that work very well with the Republican Party so congratulations for using them this morning.
“But we have people in a pandemic that you said wouldn’t matter by the time you get to the fall, and on the left there’s a conversation happening about student loan debt. How much should be forgiven? $50,000 vs. $10,000. And we’re talking about a capital gains increase when you all just had basically the reparations we’ve been asking for [in] your last tax proposal. So I don’t even understand what we’re talking about here.”
One other thing on capital gains taxes: The vast majority of Americans never have to pay them. The wealthiest taxpayers do. And taxing them won’t do any long-term damage to the economy, despite what conservatives try to claim.
Nice try, Chris, but Angela Rye made sure your lie was exposed and countered with facts.
Here’s the video from ABC News: