Obama Economic Adviser Snipes at Fox’s Sandra Smith in Tense Debate Over Biden’s Tax Plan: ‘Check the Numbers’

Barack Obama’s former economic advisor Austan Goolsbee sneered at Fox News anchor Sandra Smith during a tense debate over Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s tax plan — ultimately telling her to “check the numbers.”

Smith began the segment by showing a clip of Biden discussing his tax plan, during which he proposed raising taxes for wealthy businesses and anyone making more than $400,000.

“The very wealthy should pay a fair share,” Biden explained. “Corporations should pay a fair share. I’m not punishing anybody. This is about everybody paying their fair share.”

Smith brought Goolsbee on to address the plan after suggesting that everyone’s taxes would go up if Biden wins the election in 2020.

“I agree with those proposals. The Trump administration cut taxes $2 trillion for high-income people and big corporations and we did not get a massive magic beanstalk beans boom from that,” Goolsbee said. “They promised at that time that it would raise the wage for the average worker by $4,000, which did not happen. So I had no problem with what Joe Biden is saying there. I think that they should have a more equal distribution of who is paying their fair share.”

Smith debated Goolsbee’s claims, noting that nonpartisan economic groups are projecting that everyone will be burdened by Biden’s plan, not just big corporations.

“In fact, the Tax Foundation found that while 3.2 trillion and 3.8 trillion in revenue would come through the door between there, the GDP would go down by 1.51 percent over the long term and you would see nearly 600,000 fewer full-time jobs over the long term. Does that concern you?” Smith asked.

Goolsbee explained that the Tax Foundation was using the method of “dynamic scoring” by reporting on the rate of return on investments as opposed to raises in taxes, to which Smith responded to with more numbers.

The anchor pointed out that the Tax Foundation concluded that average taxpayers would see a 1.7 percent reduction in after-tax income. She added that they also projected a 7.8 percent decline for top earners in 2030 and a .7 percent decline for those in the bottom.

“They came to that conclusion and they came to exactly that same conclusion to rationalize the tax cut that Donald Trump passed in 2017 saying when he said that it would raise wages by $4,000, when they cut taxes for high-income people by $2 trillion. Only it didn’t,” Goolsbee responded.

“So that’s why I don’t think that that dynamic scoring model is appropriate. And I find it hard to believe that the Trump administration is really going to hang their hat on ‘your family makes $45,000 a year,’ but what about those $45,000 a year people who have large offshore bank accounts in the cayman islands? Aren’t they going to be hit by the provisions Joe Biden is putting in to raise taxes on foreign earnings in those bank accounts?”

The two then debated Biden’s plan in terms of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has caused several businesses to shut down permanently, and others to lose large amounts of revenue.

Smith asked Goolsbee if he was concerned by Biden’s tax plan as so many American businesses are affected by the epidemic, to which he explained that the plan did not apply to them.

“On the coronavirus pandemic, if you are not making a profit you don’t pay any taxes. That’s how the corporate income tax system works,” he added. “If they’re losing money because of coronavirus then this would have no bearing on them.” He later noted that Biden’s plan is set to target big corporations that are avoiding taxes under the Trump administration, again adding that cutting taxes by $2 trillion did not work.

Smith questioned if he was implying that the United States did not see economic growth prior to the pandemic and Goolsbee explained that growth was slower than during the last three years of the Obama administration.

“Whew. That’s a debate we’ll continue to have,” Smith replied.  “Check the numbers,” Goolsbee shot back.

According to CNN, Goolsbee was correct. The economy gained 6.6 million jobs under Trump’s first 36 months in office while Obama added 8.1 million during the same period — 23 percent more jobs.

Watch above, via Fox News.