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PolitiFact FL: Moody’s FL diner ad mischaracterizes Nixon’s position on OBBBA as support for $4 trillion tax hike

By Maria Briceño | PolitiFact
Published October 21, 2026 at 9:00 AM EDT
State Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville asks a question on the SB 2-A Property Insurance bill, Dec. 14, 2022, in the House of Representatives in Tallahassee, Fla. (AP Photo/Phil Sears, File)
Phil Sears
/
AP
State Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville asks a question on the SB 2-A Property Insurance bill, Dec. 14, 2022, in the House of Representatives in Tallahassee, Fla. (AP Photo/Phil Sears, File)

WLRN has partnered with PolitiFact to fact-check Florida politicians. The Pulitzer Prize-winning team seeks to present the true facts, unaffected by agenda or biases.

U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., is warning voters her Democratic opponent, Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon, would make things more expensive by increasing their taxes.

In a Moody campaign ad, a diner server pours coffee for a table of older adult customers. “She works nine-hour shifts, mostly on her feet,” Moody says from off-screen. Referring to the customers, she says, “They spent 40 years paying in to Social Security. Every dollar in this diner was earned.”

Moody then introduces herself: “I voted to stop taxing tips and Social Security while my opponent backed a $4 trillion tax hike on everyone in this diner.”

Moody is referring to Nixon’s opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which became law in July 2025. The bill, which Moody supported, extended the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and granted new breaks. If repealed in its entirety, experts said, it could raise taxes by about $4 trillion.

But here’s where the ad misleads: Although Nixon has spoken out against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act many times, the crux of her public objections focus on the bill’s tax breaks for corporations and the ultra-wealthy, not its reductions for older adults or hourly workers like restaurant servers.

The 2017 tax cuts passed during Trump’s first administration lowered the average income tax rates for all income groups, with the largest cuts concentrated among the top 5% of earners. As these cuts were set to expire on Dec. 31, 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act reupped them and enacted temporary tax breaks for people who work overtime and receive tips.

The 2025 law gave workers a tax break on some tipped income and to some older Americans aged 65 and older an additional $6,000 tax deduction until 2028. It didn’t end taxes on Social Security or tips.

Nixon’s campaign said she supports eliminating federal taxes on tips and Social Security — and she wants to repeal only the portions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that apply to the wealthy and corporations. She said she hopes such cuts will help pay for free childcare and universal healthcare.

Nixon criticized the 2025 tax law’s benefits for very wealthy people?

The ad cited an article from Florida’s Voice, a conservative news site, showing onscreen a headline that says, “Socialist…vows to scrap tax cuts as Florida leads nation in refunds.” The Aug. 31 Florida’s Voice article cited interviews Nixon gave in a July 8 podcast and an Aug. 19 CBS Mornings segment.

In the podcast interview, Nixon said the One Big Beautiful Bill Act had cut assistance programs for Americans to give “tax breaks to the rich.” She said she wanted to fight for those programs.

In the CBS Mornings interview, she spoke about her desire for universal healthcare and free childcare, and said that to pay for it she “would repeal that big BS bill because that’s what it was. It wasn’t beautiful. And I would make sure that these big-time billionaires and ultra-wealthy millionaires pay what they owe.”

In a June 18 Miami Beach Democratic primary forum, as she was talking about affordability, Nixon also said she wanted to repeal the Big Beautiful Bill Act to make sure the wealthiest pay their “fair share.”

Nixon has repeated this sentiment on other occasions.

Nixon’s campaign website says that besides advocating for Medicare for All and free childcare, she also seeks free paid family and sick leave, a national rent freeze and a moratorium on evictions. She would pay for these changes by implementing a 5% annual wealth tax on billionaires, and cutting spending on war.

A Moody campaign spokesperson pointed PolitiFact to several tax and policy analyses that estimated One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s tax cuts would come to more than $4 trillion and estimated tax increases in that range if the 2017 cuts weren’t extended.

Calculations by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based think tank, found the 2025 law would reduce federal revenue by about $4.3 trillion over 10 years, which is roughly in line with Moody’s number. Garrett Watson, Tax Foundation vice president of federal tax policy, said the estimate includes the values of the new tax cuts and the 2017 tax cut extensions.

Watson estimated that 35% of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s tax cuts went to the top 10% of earners. Getting rid of those alone — which is closer to what Nixon’s campaign said she would want — could increase taxes by about $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion, he said.

Is the One Big Beautiful Bill Act benefiting hourly wage earners and senior adults?

Although Moody said in the ad that the tax cuts on tips and for older Americans helped the average people at the diner, experts said the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is more beneficial for people with higher incomes.

“It is the case that the benefits of the tax cuts were larger for higher-income Americans than they were for low and middle income Americans,” Joseph Rosenberg, senior fellow at the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, said. “So the main thing is that largely speaking, the bulk of the tax cuts were reductions in the federal income tax and that is a very progressive tax. And so even, for changing the broad income tax rates and schedule, the benefits are very concentrated at the top.”

He also said the law made significant changes and cuts to federal estate and gift taxes, which “only very wealthy people are subject to.” It also extended a deduction for certain types of business income that is concentrated among higher-income Americans.

A Tax Foundation analysis showed the 2025 tax law increased after-tax income across-the-board, but the breaks were not evenly distributed and went mostly to top earners.

Our ruling

Moody said Nixon “backed a $4 trillion tax hike on everyone in this diner,” including a server and older adults.

Moody was referring to Nixon’s objection to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. If the law were repealed in its entirety, it could result in a $4 trillion overall tax increase.

Although Nixon has said multiple times she wants to repeal the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to help provide universal healthcare and free childcare, she has focused her objections on the law’s benefits for the nation’s ultra-rich and corporations, saying the wealthiest have to pay their “fair share” in taxes. Most of the law’s tax cuts went to higher income earners.

Her campaign told PolitiFact she supports tax cuts on tips and for older Americans and wants to eliminate only the law’s cuts to the wealthy.

Cutting the tax breaks to only the top 5% of earners could increase their taxes by about $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion.

The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. We rate it Half True.

Our Sources
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Government & Politics NewsSen. Ashley MoodyAngie Nixonpolitical adstaxesBig Beautiful Bill
Maria Briceño | PolitiFact
See stories by Maria Briceño | PolitiFact
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