WaPo Calls Out Pelosi for Misleading Claim That ‘Middle-Class’ Americans Will See Higher Taxes Under Trump Tax Law

The Washington Post fact checker on Tuesday gave House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) "two Pinocchios" for her misleading claim from last week that 86 million middle-class families will see a tax increase under the Republican tax reform law.

"Eighty-six million middle-class families will see a tax increase while they advertise it as a middle-class bill," Pelosi said at a town hall in California on April 4.

That claim is misleading, the Post found, since more than 80 percent of taxpayers are expected to get a tax cut and less than 5 percent are expected to get a tax increase under the overhaul, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

Pelosi's 86-million number comes from the fact that, in 2027, the last year of the tax cut, a majority of Americans will see a tax increase, while only 25 percent of taxpayers will see a tax cut. The bottom 80 percent of taxpayers—who Pelosi classifies as "middle class"—will see a greater percentage of tax hikes.

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