Democrats are ready to raise taxes. They want more revenue, in part to fund an out-of-this-world amount of new spending. Some simply want to soak the rich, as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.) plainly signaled at the Met Gala by wearing a white dress with “TAX THE RICH” scrawled across it in red paint. While the public may be more receptive to the idea because of concerns over high budget deficits, let’s not be naive—many voters believe that these tax hikes won’t hit them. There’s so much wrong about this assumption.
Writing for The Dispatch, the Manhattan Institute’s Brian Riedl documents President Joe Biden’s spending plan, which would expand federal government spending by $11 trillion over the next decade. This spending would help fund a cradle-to-grave new world in which government is omnipresent in our lives. The spending would increase family assistance by $550 billion. Another $700 billion would be wasted on counterproductive “Buy America” provisions. Expansion of the Affordable Care Act would cost another $1.4 trillion; some $2 trillion would go to a Green New Deal; K-12 schools would get more money. All of this is on top of the $6.6 trillion spent on COVID-19 relief.
Biden would partially pay for this $11 trillion with $3.6 trillion from higher taxes. As Riedl explains, “it would represent the largest permanent tax increase since World War II.” Even if the president got the revenue he hopes to collect with these tax hikes—which won’t happen once people start moving their capital around to avoid the oppressive tax burden—it would only cover a third of the new spending. Meanwhile, the House Democrats have their own $2.2 trillion tax plan, which covers even less of the new spending.
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