Times reporters Ben Casselman and Jim Tankersley now write:

Ever since President Trump signed the Republican-sponsored tax bill in December 2017, independent analyses have consistently found that a large majority of Americans would owe less because of the law. Preliminary data based on tax filings has shown the same.

Well, duh. When you cut the tax rate for middle-income earners, a group that makes up the great majority of taxpayers, how could it be otherwise? But despite this mathematical logic, polls found that most Americans believed they hadn't got a tax cut and that a large minority thought their taxes had actually increased, even though not even one in ten households actually saw an increase in federal taxes.

The Times piece came with a revealing bar chart from the independent Tax Policy Center, which shows the skepticism of various income groups verses reality of the tax cuts they received. For instance, households making $30,000 to $50,000 got a tax cut of 69.1% while only 36.1% think they got a tax cut. This finding is consistent across the entire income range.

 What’s the cause of this disconnect? The Times provides the answer:

To a large degree, the gap between perception and reality on tax cuts appears to flow from a sustained -- and misleading -- effort by liberal opponents of the law to brand it as a broad middle-class tax increase.

The Democratic disinformation campaign, aided and abetted by the media, seems to have worked. A December 2017 SurveyMonkey poll showed about 66 percent of all taxpayers did not believe the Trump tax reform would result in lower taxes to them while 75 percent of Democrats thought the same. A poll taken this month showed again that 75 percent of Democrats didn't think they got a tax cut while the overall percent of Americans who thought they did rose only slightly.

Casselman and Tankersley also dispel the myth promoted by politicians in high-income states like New York, New Jersey, California, etc. that the changes in the so-called SALT deductions resulted in tax increases. Two-thirds of American households, and even two thirds of tax filers in New York State, take the standardized deduction. This means the SALT cap is irrelevant to them. Furthermore...

Paradoxically, many higher-income households weren't getting the SALT deduction, either. That's because the alternative minimum tax effectively wiped out many deductions, including SALT, for couples earning more than $250,000 a year. The tax law significantly defanged the A.M.T., meaning most of those households ended up getting a bit of a tax cut.

There are several major takeaway points from all this. First, it shows how inherently dishonest Democrats and their media accomplices are. They are of the left, and the left is devoid of any decency and scruples. These people will lie and cheat about anything and everything to satisfy their lust for power. Lying for 'the cause' is a badge of honor for them. 

The second point is even more depressing. The Times story illustrates how powerful the mainstream media still is and how terribly gullible people are to its propaganda. The left-wing media is clear and present danger to sound and honest government. 

The Times is coming clean now that the damage of the Democratic propaganda has been done. Who knows how many Republican seats were lost in the House in 2018 because people believed the GOP increased their taxes?