In late October 2020, a number of Facebook users attributed a post about Joe Biden’s tax plan to money guru Dave Ramsey, instantly imparting far more weight and authority to its claims (archived):
In the screenshot, an October 21 2020 post by a “David Ramsey” read:
Does everybody realize that if you read the Biden tax plan, go to pages in the 40s 50s and 60s and you will find that he has a plan to tax you on your house at 3% of its value this is above and beyond your property taxes you pay now.
Plus families making $50k or more, your taxes will go up $7,800 over a 10 year period. (Dan Sauerwein) plus the loss of $750 a year from the repealing of the Trump middle class tax cuts. The man also wants to tax your 401(k) IRA’s. Do people realize that until 1983 you paid no taxes on Social Security but Biden put up the bill and sponsored it to tax Social Security at 50% and then raised it to 80%. A man of the people. Is this what you want to happen, really.
Nobody is reading his plan. WAKE UP!!! Look at his plan! We already paid into social security all our working lives and now we are taxed again. Young ones some day you may need SS. It’s a lot to read the details but if you don’t and vote on pure emotion you will pay the price dearly later.
‘Dave Ramsey on Joe Biden’s Tax Plan’
The text was nearly identical to another post circulating both on Facebook and in comment sections in the lead-up to the November 3 2020 election:
Does everybody realize that if you read the Biden tax plan alone- Go to pages in the 40s 50s and 60s and you will find that he has a plan to tax you on your HOUSE at 3% of its value this is above and beyond your property taxes you pay now. Plus families making $50k or more, your taxes will go up $7,800 over a 10 year period. Plus the loss of $750 a year from the repealing of the Trump middle class tax cuts and your child rebate. He also wants to tax your 401(k) IRA’s. Do people realize that until 1983 you paid no taxes on Social Security but Biden put up the bill and sponsored it to tax Social Security at 50% and then raised it to 80%. A man of the people. Is this what you want to happen. Really. Nobody is reading his plan. Look at his platform! Look at his plan! His green new deal will bankrupt our country while not being able to sustain our normal energy consumption. Have you looked at the amount of pollution creating these so called green product produce? Keep looking at his little boy smile. Vote for him for the sake of not liking the other guy. But don’t say it’s because he has a plan. If folks really read it. Looked past the main news which only shows the highlights not substants you wouldn’t go with his plan.
Identical versions of the screenshot — suspiciously, not the post itself — appeared in a cursory search of Facebook for the original October 21 2020 David Ramsey post:
Also, the generalized spread of questionable financial advice attributed to Ramsey was nearly identical to a July 2020 rumor that the same Ramsey warned of a “cashless society” emerging in 2020, during a national coin shortage. In both instances, a copy-and-paste Facebook post already in circulation garnered far more engagement when its words were attributed to a well-known money pundit:
Will the Real Dave Ramsey Please Stand Up?
Although it was clear from the screenshot itself that the post was from a regular person who shared Ramsey’s name, it was also true no such post appeared on Ramsey’s Facebook page — which was “Dave Ramsey,” not “David Ramsey.”
Ramsey wasn’t the only celebrity to repeatedly be falsely accused of writing Facebook copypasta due to a common name. Tim Allen was often confused with other Tim Allens who shared circulating screeds on Facebook:
In short, double-check any statements attributed to Dave Ramsey, Tim Allen, or Frida Kahlo.
Even If It’s Not Dave Ramsey, Does It Describe Biden’s Tax Plan?
No, no it does not.
LeadStories.com’s fact-check on related claims was appended to many of the posts on Facebook. KXTV examined the specific post often attributed to Ramsey, finding, among other things, that the claim that Biden’s tax schemes were “hidden” in the “40s, 50s, and 60s [pages]” represented a flat-out mischaracterization of a plan that clocked in at seven pages:
A search through analyses by Moody’s Analytics, the Tax Foundation, and the Brookings Institution’s Tax Policy Center, all nonpartisan, found no mention of a tax on housing or property. Nor is there one mentioned in the tax plan on Biden’s website.
In fact, Biden’s entire tax plan is about seven pages long. The pages where the property tax information can supposedly be found don’t even exist.
One version of the social media postings shows “David Ramsey” making the Biden tax plan claim. That Ramsey is not the radio host known for his expertise in personal finance, he goes by “Dave Ramsey” on Facebook and has a verified checkmark next to his name. The David Ramsey who made the claim is unrelated.
It seems that the unknown original author relied on an assumption that readers would not actually bother to look up Biden’s tax plan — at the same time they were sneering at others for not doing so. Unfortunately, based on the volume of posts with identical verbiage traversing myriad platforms, that assumption seemed to be correct.
You Can Read Joe Biden’s Tax Plan Here
That’s it, that’s the whole section. The page bears the title, “A TALE OF TWO TAX POLICIES: TRUMP REWARDS WEALTH, BIDEN REWARDS WORK.”
Summary
The “Dave Ramsey on Joe Biden’s tax plan” was a double-decker lie, completely untrue on two levels. It was not true that Ramsey authored the post, and the claims contained therein were in no way accurate.
- Dave Ramsey Biden Tax Plan
- Dave Ramsey Biden Tax Plan
- Does everybody realize that if you read the Biden tax plan alone- Go to pages in the 40s 50s and 60s and you will find that he has a plan to tax
- Facebook | Dave Ramsey
- Tim Allen Meme: ‘Obamacare Website Costs More Than Trump’s Wall’
- Tim Allen ‘Trump 2020 or America Is Dead’ Commentary
- Fact Check: Biden Did NOT Propose A 2% Nationwide Property Tax
- VERIFY: No, Biden isn’t proposing a tax on your house
- A TALE OF TWO TAX POLICIES: TRUMP REWARDS WEALTH, BIDEN REWARDS WORK