Democrats Torched The Economy. Now They Want To Raise Taxes

While strolling on the beach this week, President Biden told fawning reporters he is gearing up to raise taxes on individuals and businesses.

He hand-waved away concerns about a recession.

But the economy is in peril and the last thing the country needs is a giant tax increase. Inflation just hit a record high of 8.6% year-over-year.

Biden is out of touch with Americans: 83% of workers expect a near-term recession. 81% of Americans believe the country is already in a recession or will enter one in the next three months.
CNBC surveyed 22 top chief financial officers and the results were hardly more encouraging. All 22 believe the U.S. is on its way to a recession, while 68% predicted that the recession would hit in the first half of 2023, as opposed to sooner.

Almost half of Americans have begun to implement stricter controls on how they spend their money. They are battening down the hatches. But the Biden administration together with Sens. Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin are ready to pummel them with tax increases.

These tax hikes will make things worse for households and businesses. The Producer Price Index — wholesale inflation — went up 10.8% in the last year, a signal that consumer inflation will continue to increase.

Yet Joe Biden and the Democrats still want to raise taxes, this time by $1 trillion through Build Back Better 2.0.

Americans know any tax increase on businesses will just get passed on to the customer. A 2020 study shows that 31% of corporate tax incidence ultimately falls on consumers, another hit to everyday consumers’ wallets.

The higher prices driven by these onerous taxes also hit workers in the form of slower wage growth. A 2012 study found that a $1 increase in corporate taxes will reduce wages by 92 cents.
Americans’ utility bills would also go up, as state utility commissions are required to incorporate taxes into their billing rates. This means that once the Democrats increase taxes, utility bills will go up commensurately.

Small businesses have high utility costs — refrigeration, heating, cooling — and often operate on slim margins. Higher utility bills and higher taxes could put them out of business.

This is only a fraction of what Biden put forth in this year’s presidential budget, which includes 36 tax increases, including 11 on American oil and gas. This will only put more upward pressure on gas prices. Households are already under enormous strain as gas prices have hit record highs across the country.

Biden’s corporate tax rate would force American employers to pay a higher tax rate than communist China.

Democrats want to increase the size and power of the Internal Revenue Service. They want to deploy 87,000 new agents — not to answer the phone when you call but rather to increase audits of small businesses.

For his part, Manchin is breaking a key promise he made to West Virginians. He had pledged to his constituents that he would not raise taxes in a recession. “I don’t think during a time of recession you mess with any of the taxes or increase any taxes,” said Manchin in a nationally televised debate in 2010.

Former President Barack Obama, under whom Biden served as vice president, agrees. “The last thing you want to do is raise taxes in the middle of a recession.”

The Democrat tax increases will weaken our economy by taking hard-earned money out of the hands of taxpayers. These times will be tough for American workers, and the money that they have earned needs to stay in their pockets, where it rightfully belongs.

Any tax increase now is reckless.

Trying to solve a crisis of their own creation by doubling down on a failed policies is exactly why voters are ready to vote Democrats out of office. Hard working Americans living paycheck to paycheck are in no mood to be fleeced any further.

Ben Susser is a communications associate at Americans for Tax Reform.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.