Every Democrat Senator Owes Hillsdale an Apology for Lying about the College during Tax Reform Debate

It may have seemed that Republicans won big during the most recent tax debate, but Democrats managed to pull off a dirty trick.  In the GOP tax bill was a provision that liberals characterized as an “unjustified earmark for Michigan’s conservative Hillsdale College, a school that famously declines to accept federal funds.”  All of the forty-eight Senate Democrats voted to adopt  Jeff Merkley’s amendment which stripped the bill of this provision, and they persuaded some misguided Republicans to go along with them: Sens. Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John Kennedy of Louisiana.

The Federalist has the details:

The trouble is, the premise of the vote was false. The alleged “earmark” was not an earmark. It did not exclusively benefit Hillsdale. The vote to strip it was a mistake.

Hillsdale was innocent. Fifty-two senators owe her an apology.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the leader of the chamber’s Democrats, falsely claimed last night that the college would be “the only institution” to benefit from an “exemption” from a new excise created under the bill.

In the crush of the late-night amendment “vote-a-rama,” Schumer’s lies flew past the finish line while the truth was still looking for its running shoes.

In other words, Hillsdale will get punished, along with several other colleges who don’t take money from the feds.

● Grove City College (Pennsylvania)
● Christendom College (Virginia)
● Patrick Henry College (Virginia)
● Pensacola Christian College (Florida)
● Gutenberg College (Oregon)
● Wyoming Catholic College (Wyoming)

As Dean Clancy wrote,  “Hillsdale does not decline federal money so it can engage in ‘discrimination.’ Just the opposite. In refusing to comply with federal education bureaucrats’ race-tracking rules, the school’s board insists on not discriminating.” I agree.  That’s why it was gratifying when one of my children decided to attend this college — and is currently a student there.

The rule should be, no burden…no tax.  Period.

The Democrats and their gullible Republican allies need to apologize.

Hat Tip: The Federalist

Image Credit: By Brother Atticus (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons