CNN’s John Harwood is rather squeeing over China Joe being able to get his COVID “stimulus” through Congress. It was so easy that Democrats had to pass it using reconciliation, because Joe couldn’t get any Republican votes, because House and Senate Democrats, along with Dementia Joe, didn’t bother trying to craft a bipartisan bill, didn’t attempt to gain consensus with Republicans, despite all Joe’s Unity talk. Should giant legislation like that be easy?
Biden made stimulus look easy. Selling tax hikes for infrastructure will be harder
President Joe Biden’s second big legislative push will be harder than his first for multiple reasons, most conspicuously this one: It will include tax increases.
To be sure, Biden seeks increases of the most popular kind. He intends to target corporations and rich people without, aides maintain, touching Americans earning under $400,000 a year.
But tax hikes that start out popular don’t often end up that way, as Republican strategists are eager to prove again once debate over Biden’s “Build Back Better” infrastructure plan begins in earnest.
“Nobody believes taxes are only going to be raised on the wealthy,” explained Glen Bolger, a leading Republican pollster. “The negative tends to outweigh the positive. If we do our job, it becomes the dominant thing.”
Build Back Better, which envisions roughly $3 trillion in new spending and hundreds of billions more in tax credits, shares some of those qualities. Its marquee feature — upgrading America’s stock of roads, bridges, airports, schools, broadband and energy infrastructure — enjoys broad support from voters, politicians in both parties, and business leaders.
Two points: Build Back Better is part of The Great Reset, which is no conspiracy theory. Think of when Obama, China Joe’s boss, was yammering about “fundamentally transforming America.” 2nd
Yeah, the China Joe admin has already started to spin Joe’s $400k promise, saying that was for families. Single earners would be $200k. When does that change?
As Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell summarized it: “A so-called infrastructure proposal that may actually be a Trojan horse for massive tax hikes and other job-killing left-wing policies.” Similar attacks on “job-killing” tax hikes by Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama exacted a political toll even though economic events did not vindicate them.
The relentless march of income equality since has enhanced the appeal of Biden’s ideas, which include a higher corporate rate, a higher rate on personal income for top earners, and higher rates on capital gains and inherited assets. His call to reward “work, not wealth” reflects polls showing middle-class voters believe the rich and Big Business avoid taxation at their expense.
That belief undercut public support for former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which disproportionately benefitted high earners. But Americans’ widespread distrust of government creates treacherous cross-currents for Biden and his party just the same.
“They think once (lawmakers) start raising taxes, ‘I’m going to get stuck with the bill,'” said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman. “Historically, they’ve just heard ‘tax increase.’ They don’t hear the qualifier: who’s paying it.”
That last line shows that the Elites think we’re stupid. Because those tax increases never stop at “the rich”. Raise them on corporations and they pass them along to everyone else. Raise them on individuals and they look to shelter their money rather than investing it. And we aren’t dumb enough to think that there won’t be all sorts of tax increases and games played, especially when we know the “infrastructure” bill will contain all sorts of hardcore leftist priorities that have little to nothing to do with infrastructure and will solicit almost no Republican input. You can bet people will be given almost no chance to read it before it is voted on.
Consider the fate of two ballot measures in last November’s elections. In Illinois, voters considered shifting from a flat tax to a progressive income levy that Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker said would only hit the top 3% of households; in California, they considered higher taxes on large commercial property owners to finance schools and local government.
Both are blue states Biden carried easily. In both, voters rejected the tax hikes.
Leftists say they want to raise taxes on “the rich”, but, when they actually have to vote, they vote against the measures because they know it would raise their own taxes. Nothing is more fair than a flat tax.
Biden’s plan attempts a logical connection between new spending and revenue to pay for it. Raising the corporate rate to 28% from 21% would finance physical infrastructure investments. Higher levies on wealthy individuals would finance “human capital” benefits including tuition-free community college and universal pre-kindergarten.
What does community college and pre-school have to do with infrastructure? Raise the corporate rate and they will shelter it, not spend it, have less hiring, fewer pay raises, etc and so on. In the real world, we understand this, unlike the people in Congress who mostly haven’t worked real jobs in decades and/or never actually ran a business in any fashion.
That’s why White House officials and congressional Democratic leaders alike expect negotiations with Republicans on a bipartisan compromise to fail. If that happens, Build Back Better would end up taking the same path as Covid relief: A single giant bill advanced under special budget rules that would require rock-solid Democratic unity but no Republican votes.
What you’ll hear, just like in the early Obama years, is that Joe and the Dems aren’t bothering to talk with Republicans because they know the GOP is against the bill, so, why bother? So, there will be no engagement from Joe. Not that Joe seems to really understand what’s going on. He just does what he’s told.
Read: Unlike “Stimulus”, Biden Will Have A Tougher Time Selling Tax Hikes Or Something »
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