Tomi Lahren Pushes Conspiracy Theories While Calling Covid Relief “Blue State Bailouts”

Last updated on March 18th, 2021 at 09:34 am

Fox News personality Tomi Lahren said President Joe Biden‘s administration’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package amounts to little more than “blue state bailouts.”

“It is so blatantly obvious what’s going on, piss poor leaders have been champing at the bit to pass off their blue state bailouts as ‘COVID Relief,’ she said.

“This has all been a part of their PLANdemic!!” she added, a reference to the 2020 conspiracy theory video that promoted misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic that claims vaccines are designed to cause medical harm and alleges the pandemic, which has claimed the lives of more than 535,000 Americans as of this writing, was deliberately made worse because of nefarious decision-making by global elites.

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Republican leaders have for years promoted the idea that red states, known for lower tax rates, are subsidizing “blue high-tax states because of the deduction for state and local taxes,” as The Associated Press noted as part of a fact-check in 2017.

“An Associated Press Fact Check finds it’s actually the other way around. High-tax, traditionally Democratic states (blue), subsidize low-tax, traditionally Republican states (red) — in a big way… It is true that taxpayers in high-tax states benefit the most from the deduction,” the outlet continued. “However, these states send far more tax dollars to Washington than residents in low-tax states. In fact, most high-tax states send more money to Washington than they get back in federal spending. Most low-tax states make a profit from the federal government’s system of taxing and spending.”

This myth continued to spread unabated as Congress debated Covid-19 relief last year amid wide public support for the CARES Act and has proliferated in the weeks since the Democrat-led Congress began working on President Biden’s stimulus plan.

An analysis from the Washington D.C.-based Tax Foundation found that 23 states with Republican governors and control of the state legislature would receive almost $121.4 billion under the American Rescue Plan. Comparatively, areas under Democratic control––15 states and Washington, D.C.––would receive about $130.1 billion.

Alan Herrera

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.