TAXATION

PAGE ONE

Panel 1

An extreme close up of the face of a white man. This is Project 2025 founder Paul Dans.

DANS: Whether the Indigenous, slaves, women, immigrants, or the poor, there remains one constant in America …someone is getting screwed.

Panel 2

A medium close up of Dans in front of a lighted screen. He is wearing a suit and holding a thin, 1970s microphone.

DANS: Welcome to Getting Screwed in America! I’m Project 2025 founder Paul Dans. Tonight’s sponsors include polluters, climate deniers, and right-wing billionaires.

Panel 3

Dans stands in front of a game show host’s podium and claps for Donald Trump, who is posed like Vanna White in front of a big screen with lights around the border.

TRUMP: I have the same sponsors!

DANS: Let’s meet tonight’s contestants.

Panel 4

An old-timey political cartoon of a robber baron stands at a podium. He is a large man with a top hat, a cigar, and a handlebar moustache, and we’ll call him Corp. Dans speaks to him from off panel.

DANS: You old dodger. How’s business? 

CORP: Business is booming, I make money even when I’m losing money. I pay lower taxes than a school teacher.

DANS: You are either a maker or a taker. We reward the makers or the whole system collapses.

Panel 5

At another podium stands a caricature of Elon Musk, who is tucking money into his suit jacket. We’ll call him Bill. Dans leans lovingly toward him.

DANS: Welcome to say a personal friend of mine.

BILL: My wealth increases so fast. I made a million just now. And again. But it’s not enough.

Panel 6

Bill smirks, holding rolled-up money like a cigar. Dans, from his podium, gazes at him lovingly, a heart floating up next to his face.

BILL: Can I roll around naked on a big pile of gold coins?

DANS: I think I’m in love.

Panel 7

At a third podium stands a man who looks like a caricature of Mitt Romney: thin, haughty, and adjusting the tie of his nice suit. His name is Capital Gains. To his left, we see Dans and Trump, ready to start the game.

DANS: Welcome Capital Gains, a first-time guest. Introduce yourself.

CAPITAL GAINS: No, no.  I don’t need any attention.

DANS: We all treasure our privacy.

CAPITAL GAINS: I mind my own business and barely get touched by taxes.

Panel 8

Dans holds his hand up like a televangelist feeling the power of God.

DANS: Our next contestant has credit card debt, lives paycheck to paycheck, and their rent keeps going up. Welcome to the Average American Family!

PAGE TWO

Panel 1

A panel stretches across the page. We see Dans, Trump, and the three previous contestants all facing the viewer. Implicitly, the viewer is the fourth contestant, the Average American Family, and all of AAF’s dialogue for the rest of the comic comes from off panel. A huge Wheel of Fortune-style wheel is in the foreground of the panel, ready to spin.

AAF: Thanks, I guess.

DANS: It’s time to spin the wheel.

Panel 2

Same panel, but slightly zoomed in.  Dans is leaning all the way over his podium to spin the wheel.

DANS: The wheel will tell us: who pays more in Project 2025’s America? My rich friends or an average American family of four?*

AAF: It better not be me.

FOOTNOTE: *Based on a family of four earning $90,000.

Panel 3

Corp, smoking his cigar.

CORP: My tax rate goes from 21% down to 18%

Panel 4

Bill, crossing his arms over his chest, money in hand.

BILL My taxes go down, down, down!

Panel 5

Capital Gains, sneering.

CAPITAL GAINS: It’s really nobody’s business, but mine shrinks from 20 to 15 percent.

Panel 6

A close up of the arrow of the wheel pointing at the reader, who represents the Average American Family. Dans speaks from off panel.

DANS: Congratulations! You win! You are getting screwed in America.

AAF: Is this a cruel joke?

Panel 7

A close up of a grinning Dans.

DANS: A family of four making 90K will pay $2,300 more in taxes under Project 2025.

AAF: Are you deliberately trying to torture the middle class?

PAGE 3

Panel 1

Dans looms huge from his podium, leaning over the wheel and pointing at the reader/AAF. stares down and points at AAF.

AAF: Project 2025 makes it harder for me to earn overtime.*

DANS: You lose!

FOOTNOTE: [2025 p. 592]

Panel 2

Trump poses, arms outstretched, in front of his screen.

AAF:  Project 2025 will increase prices on groceries and gasoline.*

TRUMP: And you lose again!

FOOTNOTE: [2025, p. 698]

Panel 3

The three billionaires now tower over their podiums, completely dwarfing the wheel and the implicit AAF.

AAF: Your tax plan is hurting the little people.

Panel 4

Dans and Trump high-five on the stage.  To Trump’s right, the blank screen he’s been standing in front of has transformed, spelling out a message like the Wheel of Fortune board. It reads, “PROJECT 2025 SCREWS THE MIDDLE CLASS.”

TRUMP: I am going to make a lot of money with this plan.

DANS: You are being so cooperative.

Panel 5

Cameras and lights are scattered around the studio, knocked askew, and the three billionaires are now so large that they are bigger than the entire Wheel of Fortune screen. Their podiums only come halfway up their calves. A giant American flag hangs over the set, and Corp is saluting, Bill is raising his right fist in the air, and Capital Gains holds his hand over his heart. On the left side of the panel, a still normal-sized Dans and Trump have their arms around each other and perform a Rockettes-style kick.  In the center of the panel sits the wheel, still pointing to the Average American Family, which we now see: two adults, a child, and a cat, crushed under the wheel so that only their legs stick out like the Wicked Witch of the East.

AAF: Whose side are you on?