Donald Trump released a video this week touting his idea for something called “American Academy.” As we’ve discussed, the apparent plan would be for Congress to create an online, politically conservative university, which would make available free degrees.
As a Politico report noted, the blueprint, such as it is, “proposes taxing large private university endowments” to pay for the initiative.
In theory, this doesn’t sound especially conservative. In fact, it stands to reason that Republicans would be skeptical of creating new federal taxes on private entities in order to create a school that awards no-cost diplomas. But in practice, Trump and his team seem to realize that in contemporary politics, there are exceptions to the GOP’s “no new taxes” and “no tax increases” ideology.
Indeed, it’s not just the former president thinking along these lines. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas published this message to social media yesterday, lending his voice to the idea of taxing certain university endowments.
A 6% tax on the endowments of America’s “top” 10 universities—many of which are failing to condemn antisemitism—would raise $15.4 billion.
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) November 2, 2023
More than enough to pay for our aid to Israel.
For the conservative Arkansan, this isn’t altogether new: Two years ago, Cotton unveiled a bill he called the “Ivory Tower Tax Act,” which called for a 1% tax on the wealthiest private colleges’ endowments, in order to finance vocational education and training.
Two years later, the GOP senator apparently likes the idea of a 6% endowments tax to pay for, among other things, an aid package for the Middle East.
The point isn’t that Cotton’s idea is likely to gain traction on Capitol Hill. That almost certainly won’t happen. Rather, the larger significance of recommendations like these is what they tell us about his party’s approach to tax policy.
The conventional wisdom is that the Republican Party is a virulently anti-tax party, and it has been for nearly a half-century. In broad strokes, that reputation is certainly rooted in truth. But there are notable exceptions. Trump wants to create a new tax on private university endowments to pay for new government spending. Cotton has endorsed the same underlying idea, though he has separate spending priorities in mind. Last year, Republican Sen. Rick Scott went so far as to unveil a blueprint that would, if implemented, raise federal taxes on tens of millions of Americans. In fact, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell conceded that the Florida senator’s plan “raises taxes on half the American people.” A few years earlier, when GOP lawmakers approved a massive, regressive package of tax breaks, Republicans made sure that some of those who were hurt by the plan were constituencies the party didn’t like. Stephen Moore, a conservative economist and Trump advisor, told Bloomberg in December 2017, “It’s death to Democrats.” Republicans aren’t an anti-tax party, per se. It’s a party that’s only against taxes on the wealthy and large corporations.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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