Project 2025

Molly Butler / Media Matters

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Project 2025 co-author Stephen Moore wants to hike your taxes as he attacks Kamala Harris’ plan to tax the rich

Moore co-wrote the Project 2025 plan that would raise taxes on working- and middle-class families while slashing taxes for the rich

Written by Zachary Pleat

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Project 2025 contributor Stephen Moore is defending the richest Americans from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ plan to tax them more. Yet Moore co-authored the Project 2025 chapter on tax policy that slashes taxes for the rich, and as a new analysis from the Center for American Progress shows, would raise taxes on a typical middle-income household by $3,000 annually, and eventually raise effective taxes on that household by nearly $6,000 per year.

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  • Moore’s Project 2025 tax plan would increase taxes on middle-class households by nearly $6,000 every year and slash taxes for the rich

    • CAP: Project 2025’s tax reform plan would increase taxes for a median family of four by $3,000. The Center for American Progress analyzed the Project 2025 tax plan, co-authored by Stephen Moore, which it described as “an enormous shift of the tax burden from wealthy tax filers to middle-income tax filers.” As CAP explained, “The centerpiece of Project 2025’s ‘intermediate tax reform’ plan consolidates seven individual income tax brackets, ranging from 10 to 37 percent, to just two brackets: 15 percent and 30 percent.” In the end, “the median family of four made about $110,000 in 2022 and would experience about a $3,000 tax increase from this change.” [Center for American Progress, 8/27/24; Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership, 2023]
    • CAP: Project 2025 plans to eventually replace all income taxes with consumption taxes, which would force middle-income households to “pay $5,900 more” in taxes while the top 1 percent “would see a $360,000 tax cut, and the top 0.1 percent would see a $2 million tax cut.” [Center for American Progress, 8/27/24]
  • A Center for American Progress chart showing Project 2025’s plan to replace income and corporate taxes with a consumption tax would raise taxes on the bottom 90 percent while cutting taxes for the wealthy
    • Project 2025 also proposes changes to capital gains taxes that would increase tax rates on lower-income earners and cut tax rates for higher-incomes. The authors proposed taxing “capital gains and qualified dividends ... at 15 percent,” instead of the current system. Like their proposed income tax reforms, this proposal would raise effective tax rates at the lower end of the capital gains structure, where some earners currently pay 0%, while reducing the tax share at the top, where individuals earning more than approximately $500,000 pay a 20% capital gains rate. [Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership, 2023; IRS.gov, 1/30/24]
    • Project 2025 would strangle the IRS’ budget, helping wealthy tax cheats avoid paying their fair share, and increase the number of political appointees running the independent tax administration. Project 2025 notes that “the IRS has approximately 81,000 employees” but “only two are presidential appointments.” The authors recommend shifting several high-level administrative positions currently held by career IRS professionals into presidential appointments, which would effectively bring currently the nonpartisan tax administration under explicit political control. The authors voiced support for Congress reversing the additional funding provided to the IRS through the Inflation Reduction Act, which has allowed the IRS to start cracking down on tax evasion by higher-income individuals. They also call for further freezing the agency's funding at its current funding levels, which would likely reduce its effectiveness over the long term. [Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership, 2023; Tax Policy Center, 2/29/24; CNN, 6/17/24]

  • Meanwhile, Moore is touring right-wing media to defend the rich from Harris’ plans to tax them more

    • On Fox, Moore partially blamed Harris’ proposals on taxing the rich for a temporary dip in the stock market. When America Reports co-anchor Sandra Smith asked of the dip, “Do you think a lot of this is about what’s to come with the election?” Moore replied: “Yeah, I do. I think, look, if you look at what Kamala Harris is saying, she wants to double the capital gains tax, she wants to tax unrealized capital gains, she wants to re-regulate virtually anything that moves in the economy. And she’s basically totally embraced the Biden agenda.” [Fox News, America Reports, 8/5/24]
    • Moore continued attacking Harris’ tax policy later that day on Fox's Hannity, calling it “absolutely ruinous to our economy.” Moore said: “I have to say that I think Kamala Harris is the most anti-business presidential candidate in your and my lifetime. I mean, this woman has endorsed one policy after another that have -- would be absolutely ruinous to our economy. As you mentioned, doubling the capital gains tax, taxing unrealized capital gains.” [Fox News, Hannity, 8/5/24]
    • In a New York Post op-ed titled “Kamala’s faux ‘freedom’ would chain Americans to big-government tyranny,” Moore complained that “Harris favors much higher tax rates on businesses and estates — and even wants to tax unrealized capital gains on the value of a farm, a ranch or a family-owned business.” More added: “Doesn’t freedom mean the right to keep your own money without excessive taxation, and the right to pass your life savings to your children and grandchildren? (Remember: confiscatory estate taxes were a key plank of Marx’s Communist Manifesto.)” Moore is misinforming about Harris’ unrealized capital gains tax though: it applies only to households worth more than $100 million in tradable assets, such as stocks. [New York Post, 8/22/24; Media Matters, 8/28/24]
    • On Hannity, Moore ranted about the Harris-Walz ticket: “They hate businesses. They hate small businesses. They hate American corporations.” He added: “This is an assault on American businesses in a way that would do extraordinary damage to the U.S. economy. We would have the highest tax rates in the world.” Moore also misinformed about the unrealized capital gains tax, falsely claiming that the owner of a farm that increased from $250,000 to $5 million would owe $1 million in taxes. [Fox News, Hannity, 8/22/24; Media Matters, 8/28/24]
    • In his syndicated column posted to Newsmax’s website, Moore complained that Harris intends on “doubling capital gains taxes” and wants to “soak the rich.” [Newsmax.com, 8/27/24]
    • On Sinclair Broadcast Group’s national news program, Moore reiterated his complaint that Harris’ policy of raising taxes on the rich is antithetical to her theme of “freedom” and “personal liberty.” After the Sinclair host cited Moore’s New York Post op-ed, Moore said: “Higher taxes is another — how is raising people’s taxes, how does that promote freedom?” [Sinclair Broadcast Group, The National Desk, 8/28/24]