A new report from the Wisconsin Independent highlights California millionaire and GOP Senate candidate Eric Hovde’s troubling history of supporting tax cuts for the rich at the expense of working families and seniors. When Hovde unsuccessfully ran for Senate in 2012, he proposed a disastrous plan that would’ve given millionaires a tax break while eliminating tax deductions for working families. In 2017, he continued to show support for tax hikes on working families.
“From insulting seniors in nursing homes to supporting tax hikes for working families, Hovde has made it clear that he’s not in this race to represent Wisconsinites. Eric Hovde’s decades-long track record shows that he would sacrifice working families so that he can give tax cuts to millionaires like himself,” said American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson Nico Delgado.
Wisconsin Independent: Eric Hovde has favored tax hikes for low- and middle-income people
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde, the millionaire chief executive of a Utah-based bank, calls himself a Wisconsin entrepreneur who can restore the American dream and rebuild the economy. The policy positions he has espoused over the past decade suggest he would try to do that by raising taxes for millions of lower- and middle-income earners and slashing them for wealthy people like himself.
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This is not Hovde’s first attempt to win the seat. In 2012 he unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination, running on a detailed plan to cut tax rates for the richest Americans and businesses. The plan called for reducing the corporate tax rate, which ranged from 34% to 39% at the time, depending on earnings, to a flat 25% and changing individual tax rates — then 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, or 35%, depending on income — to just two tiers at 10% and 25%. It would have eliminated nearly all deductions, which families use to reduce their tax burden if they have kids, mortgages, tuition, student loans, low incomes, adoption expenses, or charitable donations.
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For those earning less than $50,000 annually, losing virtually all deductions would likely have meant a tax increase. For millionaires like Hovde, it would have been a huge windfall. Given his own annual income of $2 million in 2011 and $5.8 million in 2010, a reduction from 35% to 25% could have meant a savings of up to $780,000 over that time.
Hovde has not yet released his 2024 financial disclosures. A Hovde spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
In November 2017, Hovde explicitly proposed a tax hike for the poorest Americans and retirees.
Read the entire story in the Wisconsin Independent.
Published: May 30, 2024 | Last Modified: Jun 7, 2024