Earlier this week Denver Post Editorial Page Editor Megan Schrader excoriated President Trump for failing to sign yet another round of COVID relief into law:
A president deserving of our vote and trust would have backed and pushed a second disaster relief package by now to keep Americans from losing their homes and small businesses. Anything to keep thousands of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck from facing eviction. 7/9
— Megan Schrader (@meganschrader) July 29, 2020
Schrader’s criticism was part of a longer thread defending her decision to label homeless camps outside the state capitol “Trumpvilles.”
The idea Trump is responsible for the growing encampments in a city with 57 unbroken years of Democrat leadership is obviously absurd. However, blaming the president for congressional inaction on a second round of COVID-19 stimulus is equally at odds with reality.
Contrary to Schrader’s assertion, the president has “backed and pushed a second disaster relief package.” The president indicated on Wednesday his two priorities for COVID-19 relief were maintaining a moratorium on evictions and issuing new stimulus checks. Neither of those issues have stalled deliberations in the Senate.
Earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer reiterated his demand for the next stimulus bill to eliminate the cap on the State and Local Tax (SALT) Deduction. The SALT deduction allows wealthy taxpayers to deduct state and local taxes from their federal bill. The Trump 2017 tax reform bill capped this deduction at $10,000.
Eliminating the SALT cap has garnered support from John Hickenlooper, who argued blue state Maserati owners would be unfairly subjected to “taxation without representation” without the deduction:
Hickenlooper also wrongly predicted economic growth would slow if wealthy liberals were stripped of this tax break.
Unsurprisingly, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell informed reporters Thursday the Democrats are refusing to move forward with COVID relief unless the SALT cap is repealed.
“Let me say that again. Democrats are holding up help for struggling people over special tax cuts for rich people in blue states. An idea that’s been criticized by economists from all sides.
“Republicans want to get more help to families now. But Speaker Pelosi says: let them eat SALT.
Schrader might find this turn of events concerning, because she considers SALT reform to be “the best part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act”:
The best part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was its reform of SALT and mortgage interest tax breaks. We need more reform like that not to undo the little that was done to clean up the tax code.
— Megan Schrader (@meganschrader) May 12, 2020
At the risk of overstating the obvious, Schrader looks like a massive hypocrite here. Not only has Trump signaled openness on what could be included in a compromise, but Democrats themselves are trying to give their wealthy friends a massive tax cut in exchange for emergency stimulus.
It’s been clear for a while the Denver Post editorial page is simply an extension of the Hickenlooper campaign, but Schrader’s effort to absolve Schumer and Pelosi for delaying COVID-19 relief demonstrates yet again the left-wing bias at the Denver Post knows no bounds.