Culture & Society

Off European disaster, Biden jumps into campaign gear pushing popular Dem plan: Tax the rich!

March 29, 2022 | | Print Article

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Democrats are scrambling to find something good to point to in Joe Biden’s presidency, which thus far has been a series of disastrous and sometimes deadly policy failures, to say nothing of his recent gaffe-ridden European trip that forced the White House to push its damage control engines into hyper speed.

The appropriate distraction from all of that?

Get in campaign mode and tax the rich!

On Tuesday, Biden announced his most recent proposal to implement a minimum 2o percent tax wealth on billionaires who already pay the lion’s share of federal taxes in the nation. In a report from May of 2021, IRS data for 2018, which was the year following enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) showed the top one percent of income earners — that is those earning more than $540,000 — earned 21 percent of all U.S. income while paying 40 percent of all federal income taxes. The top 10 percent earned 48 percent of the income and paid 71 percent of federal income taxes.

The bill faces resistance from Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) among others, namely for its controversial proposal to tax unrealized gains, but Democrats know their base loves a good battle cry against super-wealthy and highly visible figures such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.

Republicans, for their part, seem hesitant to attack the bill over the perception they lobby for the wealthy too often. Democrats can easily use that perception to their advantage when it comes to “looking out for the little guy,” especially as a means to alleviate the record inflation that currently torches wallets at the gas pump and the grocery store.

“It’s important that you have the president propose it and if it doesn’t get done this year, I think it remains on the table. I think it’s something that will remain unfinished until it’s done. It’s such a glaring flaw that at some point it needs to be addressed,” Chuck Marr, the vice president for federal tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, told The Hill.

“It’s a major policy issue for this year and every year until [it gets enacted.] Once the Pro Publica story came out, I don’t think policymakers can ignore that.”

The story he refers to was published in June by Pro Publica and sought to expose the nation’s richest multi-billionaires including Bezos, Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Rupert Murdoch, and alleged they sometimes paid nothing or very little in taxes, relative to their gargantuan wealth. As they must constantly be reminded, liberals forget that a business cannot pay taxes on money lost. In addition, simply taxing the rich more is merely putting a band-aid on a tax code that if Congress wanted to change, they would change.


(Video: The Hill)

As it stands, the current richest man in the world, Elon Musk, didn’t pay any federal income taxes in 2018, according to the report and subsequent story. Bezos, who is worth an estimated $190 billion, didn’t pay any federal income taxes in either 2007 or 2011.

The White House budget office claimed on Monday in a fact sheet accompanying the proposal that “the tax code currently offers special treatment for the types of income that wealthy people enjoy.”

For Democratic strategists, the move signals a turn for Biden away from far-left progressives in the party and more toward the political center.

“I think it’s return to Biden 2020,” Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way, told The Hill. “There’s deficit reduction, more money for police, a strong defense budget.”

“He ran as a centrist with big ideas in 2020 and that won the Democratic primary and it beat Donald Trump, and then early on he did what had to be done with the [American] Rescue Plan and getting through the pandemic and the infrastructure bill,” he added.

Kessler asserted that Biden’s horrible poll numbers are directly related to his stubborn push for the now-infamous $3.5 trillion dollar spending bill.

“I think Build Back Better started to get away from him,” he said. “Congress deserves some of the, definitely, blame on this, too. That $3.5 trillion price tag — no one thought that was real and that just hung around for too long.”

Sens. Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) continue to be irritating pebbles in the shoes of Democrats when it comes to government largess.

“I’ve taken the word reconciliation, I’ve put it over here on the shelf,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), reportedly said. “I’m focusing on everything else that’s going on around here, and most of it needs 60 votes, which means it’s very limited in scope.”

“I don’t want to go through this exercise again of getting my hopes up that reconciliation is going to solve our problems and then losing it to one or two senators at the last minute,” he added.

For now, Manchin remains at least somewhat defiant over the bill.

“I don’t like it. I don’t like the connotation that we’re targeting different people,” the senator said last year and argued that ultra-wealthy individuals “bring a lot of jobs, invest a lot of money and give a lot to philanthropic pursuits.”

It looks to be an uphill battle in any case. Perhaps the only popular and sensible thing the 535 charity cases in Congress might achieve under the Biden regime will be the passage of the daylight savings bill, dubbed the Sunshine Protection Act.

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Frank Webster
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12 thoughts on “Off European disaster, Biden jumps into campaign gear pushing popular Dem plan: Tax the rich!”

  1. The one way that things changed is that pain is felt. In the case of being democrat or a Republican, they must feel the effects the (dying) middle class and poor who are constantly battling with changes that they can’t control. In the real world consequences are felt for bad decisions. Politicians with poor results because of policies or actions should be held to account before and issue boils over. If it’s an elected position, a recall election is held. If a person in the private sector is failing, the employer doesn’t wait for his business hit the bottom, that person is dealt with early on. The message is clear, do the job or prepare for your departure! No money should be exchanged between two parties in government to enhance the outcome of any project or policy. It’s not allowed in the private sector. Why are the people who can do widespread harm not held to a tightly controlled standard?

  5. Amazing! SMH They sense that they are running out of money and they can’t have that! The only thing higher taxes on the wealthy will do is make it so they spend more on absolutely worthless bills so filled with pork that they will again have to raise taxes on the middle class and working poor. Do they not understand that all the wealthy have to do is move! Take their money and the jobs they provided to a more welcoming country or, as Prospector said, buy themselves their own country and set up a taxpayer haven for themselves and other billionaires. I’m sure there must be larger islands up for sale that they can refurbish to their needs. If Disney can construct an island Fantasy Land, think of what the top 10% could do! Problem with demonrats is that they don’t think ahead. This reminds me of Nanzi Pelosi rubbing her hands together at the SOTU address. Like a greedy little fly hovering over the sugar bowl!
    MAGA Trump for Congress 2022
    MAGA Trump for President 2024
    FJB

    1. Sweetie, more taxes from the rich will make your roads, schools, farms, and villages better.

      1. Had opposite intended effect in UK:
        UK lost 10k of 16k richest and $11.2 BILLION losing 50% of tax revenue

        Lessons Learned Dept: The flight of millionaires from UK cost UK $11.2 billon in US dollars, after UK raised tax on rich to 50% & France lost richest person to Belgium for same reason. Congress knows raising taxes is doomed to failure when spending less is needed but doing so charges lemmings directionally incorrectly in unbridled enthusiasm.

        Idiotic tax changes to curry favor of uninformed scunners me.

        “ since 2010, according to London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, as wealthy taxpayers have intentionally worked less, deferred income to future years, moved their earnings overseas or left the country entirely.”

        1. DailyCaller . Com

          2012-11-28

          uk-millionaires-flee-country-over-tax-hikes-british-treasury-loses-billions

  6. If passed, the rich will move their money, no investments, the stock market will crash, much worse than has ever been seen. All pension plans we be gone, broke overnight, future plans unable to be offered, those living on a pension will likely starve, or return to work if they are able.
    Younger generations can forget any possibility of ever retiring, you will work will you are dead. That is unless you can save enough to retire on, unlikely, as the labor market will be flooded with those willing to work for wages just enough to survive.
    Literally, for all intents and purposes, the end of the United States of America!

  7. Wonder how Soros, Bezos, Gates, Zuck, Sanders, Ellison, Page, Buffet, Bloomberg, Balmer, Brinn, and the other Biden supporting billionaires feel about this?

    Won’t matter to Musk, since he has dual-citizenship and can move back to Canada or S. Africa.

    Actually, these guys can move wherever they want. They can buy their own country and set up a tax-free haven for themselves and other billionaires. I’d bet Andorra or Malta would love to have them.

  8. Slithering snake politicians, who’s salary & unique privileges are afforded by the taxpayers. They treat their constituents like subjects, with complete disregard & contempt.

  9. “namely for its controversial proposal to tax unrealized gains”

    Given the stock market can you deduct unrealized losses?

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