To hear Republicans - and especially Fox News - tell it, Democrats want America to turn to socialism. Don't take the bait. It's just another GOP trick.
In early April, Fox touted a Washington Examiner piece in which U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Florida, reportedly said she was offended by talk of socialism among her progressive colleagues in the Democratic Party and called herself a "proud capitalist." She immediately became a cause celebre for Fox - a card they flashed often to flail Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and others and to whip talk of division among Democrats.
This week, the two-term Rep. Murphy, the first Vietnamese-American woman elected to Congress, set the record straight in an op-ed in The Washington Post by elaborating on what her comments actually meant.
"I didn't expect my comments to be newsworthy, because I think they reflect sentiments shared by most Americans, including my congressional colleagues," she wrote. "I wasn't trying to feed the right-wing media beast that ravenously awaits any scent of Democratic infighting. I spoke up because I felt compelled based on my life experience. This country has done so much for me, and I care deeply about the direction it's headed."
Murphy's family fled the communist-led Socialist Republic of Vietnam when Murphy was just a baby to escape persecution and seek a better future.
"Like other immigrants who found sanctuary in the United States, I possess a deep well of gratitude for this country. My patriotism is rooted in the fact that, were it not for the combination of U.S. power and generosity, my family's story likely would have ended in tragedy," she added. "It's little wonder that some of the most faithful citizens in the United States were born outside its shores."
(Could someone please read this to the rabidly anti-immigrant Donald Trump and Stephen Miller?)
Murphy goes on to say that Democrats who accept the socialist label are few and far between, but the Republican Party, as an institution, has conducted itself irresponsibly in the capitalism-vs.-socialism debate.
"When congressional Republicans and the president don't like a government program, they flippantly condemn it as a sign of creeping socialism. For partisan reasons, they seek to paint the entire Democratic Party as drifting toward socialism, when the philosophy is espoused by a small minority of members," she said. "Arguably, these Republican tactics have done as much, if not more, to normalize the conversation about socialism than anything Democrats are doing."
She also notes that while capitalism has helped build America into the greatest nation and economy in the world, we must work to reduce the very real inequities in our country. All Americans deserve a fair shot at success, and government has an important role in breaking down barriers to advancement and improving capitalism so it works better for everyone.
Here's an example that Murphy didn't mention: Amazon, the profitable giant that paid no federal corporate taxes in 2018 and instead received a rebate on income of $10.8 billion, according to a New York Times read of data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
Amazon, unfortunately, had plenty of company, including Netflix, Halliburton, Honeywell, Duke Energy, General Motors, Chevron and Delta Air Lines, just to name a few from a list of at least 30.
Did you pay no federal taxes in 2018?
But Fox was all over Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders and progressive Democrat Elizabeth Warren, both of whom have been hammering home points about the inequities of our tax system.
"Amazon, Netflix and dozens of major corporations, as a result of Trump's tax bill, pay nothing in federal taxes," Sanders said this month during a Fox News town hall-style event. "I think that's a disgrace."
The Trump tax "reform" didn't create the situation, it just boosted it. For decades, profitable companies have been able to avoid corporate taxes, but the list of those paying zero roughly doubled last year after Trump's 2017 tax bill expanded corporate tax breaks and reduced the tax rate on corporate income.
Are Sanders and Warren recommending ditching capitalism? Absolutely not.
The most radical of Democratic-recommended changes to the corporate tax system comes from Warren. Under her proposal, corporations would pay a new 7% tax on every dollar over - repeat, over - $100 million in profits that they earn anywhere in the world. She estimates the new tax would apply to roughly 1,200 companies and bring in $1 trillion over 10 years.
They would still have a far, far better tax rate than most of us. That's socialism? Hardly.
Rep. Murphy is right to call out the the disingenuous GOP. And she's right with this recommendation:
"The best way to blunt the appeal of socialism in the United States is to improve capitalism so it works better for everyone. The United States is a continuous work in progress. Let's seek a more perfect union, but let's not forsake what makes this country special."