Democrats have delayed talking about the pain that goes with their plans for $3.5 trillion in new social spending, but details are finally leaking out: The House plan includes $2.9 trillion in tax hikes that are sure to reverse the economic gains made in the years before COVID hit.
A document from the House Ways and Means Committee includes jumping the now-top personal-income-tax rate from 37 percent to 39.6 percent — plus a new 3 percent surtax on high incomes and expansion of the 3.8 percent ObamaCare tax to cover most income, for an effective top rate over 46 percent.
It’d also boost the top capital-gains rate from 20 percent to 25 percent, and the corporate rate from 21 percent to 26.5 percent. Most small businesses would see a federal rate over 40 percent.
Laughably, they pretend the plan would boost economic growth and so increase federal tax receipts, to cover the rest of the spendapalooza.
Senate Dems are looking at their own list of tax hikes, including a $600 billion “carbon tax” that would sock anyone with a car, home or business.
The Democratic line is that these hikes would only harm corporations and the super-wealthy. Bull: Taxes on investment and employers wind up slamming the little guy; the Trump approach of cutting taxes on job-creators brought the first real gains in wages for the working class in decades.
The pandemic put that boom on hold, but it would return if Democrats let well enough alone.
No wonder they put off discussing the bill for their “transformative” dreams.