Tim Scott’s Economic Agenda: Handouts for the Ultra-Wealthy

Tim Scott’s chief accomplishment and his economic agenda is all about lining the pockets of billionaires and the biggest corporations while leaving working families out to dry.

To this day, Scott still proudly boasts about being an “architect” of Trump’s failed tax scam that rigged the economy in favor of the ultra-wealthy and largest corporations — and as president, he wants to make those permanent.

Scott: “We make the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act tax cuts permanent.”

Scott: “When it comes to our economic challenges, we need to have a hard conversation about policies that actually work. In 2017, I was one of the architects of reforming the personal side of the tax code.”

Iowa Starting Line: “GOP Tax Plan Hurt Farmers, Small Businesses”

Scott often touts Opportunity Zones as a significant achievement in closing inequality gaps, but growing evidence suggests the policy is little more than a handout to wealthy investors and is actually leaving low-income communities behind. 

PBS NewsHour: “Trump-era Opportunity Zones meant to help low-income communities exploited by investors” 

New York Times: “A new tax break that President Trump frequently touts as a boon to black Americans and hard-hit communities is spurring relatively little job creation while disproportionately helping high-profit real estate projects and not small businesses, an extensive new study by the Urban Institute has found.” 

The State: “Studies of the opportunity zone program have given mixed reviews. Across the country, designated opportunity zones with the highest median household incomes received more investments through 2020 compared to the lowest-income areas in the program, according to a study by the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis released in June.”

Tim Scott has vowed to rip up legislation signed by President Biden that helps Americans with high costs and ensures the largest corporations pay their fair share.

Scott: “I would simply eliminate the IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act, which of course, is a lie from the pit of hell…I would start the process of gutting that legislation. I would eliminate the vast majority, if not all of the green energy credits. I would eliminate every single one that I could from an executive perspective. But I would also engage Congress to reverse that legislation.”