Sen. Kennedy's Tricky Tongue

I watched this video the other day that perfectly captured something I’ve believed for years:
Republican leaders in Louisiana know how to deceive working-class voters — and they do it on purpose.

The video was from a recent speech Senator John Kennedy gave at the University of Louisiana–Monroe. In it, he starts off talking about taxes — and not in a way you’d expect from a U.S. Senator. He rattles off a list of everything we’re taxed on: our homes, our cars, our clothes, even death itself. He says what most of us are feeling: we’re sick of it.

He’s not wrong about the frustration. In Louisiana, sales taxes have gotten out of control. We have some of the highest combined sales tax rates in the country — and unlike income taxes, sales taxes hit poor and working-class people the hardest. When you’re living paycheck to paycheck, every extra dollar at the register matters.

So far, so good. But then Kennedy pivots — and this is where the scam begins.

He uses that anger about taxes to justify something completely unrelated to most of us:
cutting the estate tax.

He brags that Republicans have raised the exemption so high that 99.9% of Americans don’t have to pay it anymore. And that’s true — because the estate tax now only applies to estates worth more than $14 million per person, or $28 million for a couple. It used to apply to far more people. Twenty years ago, the exemption was around $1.5 million. It’s been increased again and again — from $5 million to $10 million, and now $14 million — shielding billions in generational wealth from ever being taxed.

But here’s the problem: that’s not relief for working people. That’s a handout to the ultra-wealthy.

Kennedy is doing what Republicans have done for decades:

• Stir up anger about regressive taxes like sales tax

• Then use that anger to push through tax cuts that only benefit the rich

• Meanwhile, the budget holes they create get filled with more sales tax hikes and cuts to public services

It’s a bait and switch. And it’s working — because people are understandably fed up.
They feel the squeeze. Their roads are crumbling, their schools are underfunded, their insurance premiums are out of control. But what they don’t see is who’s really responsible for shifting the tax burden.

Let’s be honest: It’s mostly Republicans like Kennedy (and our GOP Legislators)— the same people slashing income and corporate taxes at the top while demanding sales tax increases at the bottom.

They’ve slowly shifted the tax burden from the rich onto the rest of us. And when budgets come up short, the only thing they’ll agree to raise is the sales tax — again.

This is the playbook of trickle-down economics, and I’ve spent years studying how it’s devastated Louisiana. The results speak for themselves: budget crises, failing infrastructure, and working families left to carry the weight. Not only has it failed to lift people up — it’s actively made things worse.

Senator Kennedy’s speech is more than just a moment of hypocrisy.
It’s a blueprint. It’s how they get away with it.

They rile you up about taxes you actually pay — then turn around and cut taxes for people worth tens of millions of dollars.

That’s not just deceptive. That’s betrayal.
And here’s the truth: They’re stabbing working-class voters in the back — the very people who keep electing them.

It’s time to stop falling for the act.

Oh and I made a TikTok about it.

Share