The Patriot Post® · Inflation Up, GDP Down, and Biden Wants to Raise Taxes

In an election year when inflation is once again on the rise and the latest GDP report came in “well below expectations,” it would seem like a bad time to promise to raise taxes on millions of Americans. Yet that’s just what Joe Biden did.

“Donald Trump was very proud of his $2 trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and biggest corporations and exploded the federal debt,” whoever posts tweets for Biden asserted. “That tax cut is going to expire. If I’m reelected, it’s going to stay expired.”

Great look promising to raise taxes on the middle class — whether you admit or not — when GDP is slowing and inflation is growing.

— Nate Jackson | Patriot Post (@NatriotJackson) April 25, 2024

Biden routinely promises that no one making below $400,000 will pay more under his plan, but the 2017 Republican tax cut slashed every tax bracket. If you pay federal income taxes, you pay less now than you did under Barack Obama. By promising to make sure the cuts expire, Biden promised that everyone will pay more if he’s reelected.

Additionally, Biden’s expiration would mean a devastating hike on tax rates for capital gains while shrinking the standard deduction and child tax credit. Raising corporate taxes would mean more expensive goods and services and lower wages for employees.

The president loves to talk tough about making sure the wealthy “pay their fair share” of income taxes, but they already more than do. In fact, says the Washington Examiner’s Timothy Carney, “Wealthy people also saw their taxes reduced by the [Tax Cuts and Jobs Act], but the law actually shifted a greater portion of the tax burden onto the wealthy.”

To be sure, Biden may try to secure the same tax rates for the lower brackets or otherwise target the pain at “the wealthy,” but that’s not what he said in the above post. He just promised to end the whole law. Meanwhile, his newly expanded IRS is geared to wring more money out of more people — increasingly the middle class.

On top of that, his policies have cost lower- and middle-class Americans a whole heap of money. The inflation his spending bonanza caused is effectively a tax, and wages during his tenure simply haven’t kept up with the cumulative 19.4% price hike. Every single American is at least irritated by paying more for almost literally everything. Most are choosing not to do things they did just a few short years ago.

Regulations are effectively a tax, as well, and Biden has regulated the snot out of the economy. And The Washington Times warned yesterday that he’s “scrambling to finish a slew of federal regulations by the end of April, fearing a second Trump presidency would reverse his legacy.” Just to name a couple, he’s already issued expensive emissions rules for cars and heavy trucks that create a virtual EV mandate. Just this week, he issued new rules targeting coal-fired power plants — i.e., making electricity more expensive.

Again, this is an especially bad time to promise higher taxes. Yesterday’s first-quarter GDP report showed that the nation’s economy grew only 1.6%, far less than the projected 2.4%, and a marked slowdown from 3.4% and 4.9% in the two prior quarters. Usually, such a report would mean the Federal Reserve would reduce interest rates, but not with inflation on the upswing.

“We have the strongest economy in the world, and that’s a fact,” insisted Biden after the GDP report. His spokesparrot, Karine Jean-Pierre, added, “The economy remains strong … that’s what we see from that report.”

Despite gaslighting from Biden and his Leftmedia propagandists, maybe Americans who are sour on the economy have been right all along.

Bidenomics: A lower standard of living for everyone.