The Patriot Post® · Bidenomics Is Absurd
Has any Democrat so much as run a lemonade stand? Given their utter lack of economic sense, we have to wonder.
Unfortunately, the truth is actually worse: Democrats do know what they’re doing, which is to push our nation toward a cradle-to-grave socialist entitlement state. That’s the objective of their proposed $1 trillion in “infrastructure,” and even more so with their $3.5 trillion Bernie Sanders special that will actually cost north of $5 trillion. It’s their goal with raising taxes to “pay for” all of this spending — and not just on “the wealthy.”
Democrats know the cost of government, whether through direct taxes or indirect taxes and regulation, is a burden borne by every American. Which is why they continually insist it’s not burdensome at all.
That brings us back to Joe Biden’s recent lie that massive government spending actually costs “zero dollars” (he literally said that), and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s new lie that companies don’t raise prices when their taxes go up.
Psaki was specifically asked about analysis from the Joint Committee on Taxation showing that 16% of Americans would pay higher taxes under the Democrats’ plan, thus violating Biden’s pledge to not raise taxes on families earning less than $400,000. Psaki answered by riffing on the idea that companies pass on their costs. “There are some … who argue that, in the past, companies have passed on these costs to consumers,” Psaki said. “We feel that that’s unfair and absurd, and the American people would not stand for that.”
It’s true that companies don’t pass all the costs of higher taxes onto consumers. According to The Washington Free Beacon, “A number of economic studies have found that consumers bear approximately 31 percent of the cost of corporate tax increases through higher prices on consumer products.”
The rest of the cost of higher corporate taxes is borne by shareholders or employees either in the form of lower wages or lost jobs. The money has to come from somewhere besides that magic tree behind the building.
Democrats are invested in opposing basic supply-and-demand economics — Reaganomics, or what they derided as “trickle-down economics.” Tax cuts, they reason, can’t possibly work their way down through the economy, so neither can tax hikes. They pretend their policies have no consequences other than the supposed benefits they choose to highlight.
What’s absurd is the Democrat contention that they can redistribute enormous amounts of taxpayer cash without costing anyone but a few dirty rich people anything at all.
As the inimitable Thomas Sowell once said: “There are no solutions; there are only tradeoffs. … You try to get the best tradeoff you can get.” Conservatives believe the best tradeoff is a free market in which economic decisions are made by as many people in their own best interests as possible, ensuring the most people benefit as supply meets demand. Free markets have lifted more people out of poverty than any other system. Leftists believe a relative few politicos in DC can decide both supply and demand, and that they can run your life better than you do. That’s absurd.