Americans for Prosperity launches $20M campaign to back renewal of Donald Trump tax cuts

Tax cuts enacted under Donald Trump’s first presidential term are set to expire at the end of 2025 — but not if Americans for Prosperity (AFP) has its way.

The libertarian-conservative group, founded by billionaires Charles and David Koch, is launching a nationwide, $20 million campaign called Protect Prosperity to generate support for renewing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that a GOP-led Congress approved on party lines in December 2017.

There’s been disagreement about the $1.5 trillion package’s impact. The liberal Center for American Progress, founded by former Bill Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta, said there is “little evidence” to show the measure’s expected trickle-down substantively materialized. Instead, the group said, the tax cuts’ provisions “disproportionately benefited the highest-income households.”

An analysis last year by the Tax Policy Center found that extending key provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would disproportionately help America’s richer households, with those making $450,000 or more receiving more than 45% of the benefits.

AFP Florida, meanwhile, said that due to inflation and other factors, not renewing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would result in the average Sunshine State resident paying $3,505 more in taxes.

It’ll also slow the state’s economy, losing Florida more than 61,500 jobs it would otherwise gain, the group said, and increase taxes for businesses by an average of $1,610 per company.

“If we are going to reignite the American Dream, we need to start with protecting the progress we made with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, as well as expand on pro-growth tax policy that will jump start the economy and get more Floridians back to work,” AFP Florida Director Skylar Zander said in a prepared statement.

“We are proud to partner with the incoming Trump Administration to protect prosperity and ensure that Congress acts before millions of Floridians face crippling increases in their tax bills.”

An AFP press note said the Protect Prosperity campaign will mobilize across all 50 states with door-knocking and phone-calling campaigns. The group also plans to run a “robust” media engagement and lobbying effort that will include more than 1,000 meetings with congressional officers, in-district events with activists and federal lawmakers, roundtables with job creators, and testimonials from businesses and families “who would suffer if Congress fails to renew the Trump tax cuts.”