When they resort to semantics in order to sell a lie…

Lost in the furor of the Hunter Biden laptop fiasco are the wild claims being made about Joe Biden’s proposed tax program. While Trump campaign ads have declared Joe will raise taxes, something echoed by RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Biden is running ads where he declares he will only raise taxes on corporations, and those making over $400,000 annually. Joe has even said those below the $400,000 threshold “will not pay a penny more” in taxes under his plan.

There is one person to listen to who disputes this claim — Joe Biden himself.

You may not hear of this however, as most in the media are in full effect to echo Joe’s claim. One outlet that dared to look into it was the Washington Post, and even as they strained to mold the findings as close as they could to Joe’s boast, they still managed to reveal some of the truth. Early on you get the sense of a fix, as the paper refers to a variety of economic models McDaniel refers to, but then also states, ‘’it does not necessarily mean that Biden’s assertion is off-base either.’’

Some of the admitted details in the WaPo analysis, provided by organizations who study the Biden plan, go beyond simply raising income taxes. He is boosting the tax rate on capital gains, and wants to create limits on itemized deductions, specifics that can affect those under the $400K line. He also wants to reimpose the penalty for those who do not carry health insurance; of course Democrats label this as a ‘’fine’’, and not a tax, conveniently.

The tax experts cited all propose what the tax revenue would become under Joe’s plan, projections which in the past have always been inaccurate, given the adjustments corporations make in response to these new tax burdens. These projections are always made as if the economic activity is static — if today’s revenue were taxed at the higher rate than the current law. Companies always make changes in response to tax hikes in the form of reduced payroll, lowered reinvestment, less venture capital spent, etc. The depressed effects on tax revenue are rarely calculated accurately. 

Then there is the reality of the ‘’hidden tax’’, when companies transfer the burden to the consumer in the form of higher prices. This is more negatively impacting those sub-$400K earners. Even these various tax organizations provide tables which show nominal tax increases for the variety of brackets below the Biden threshold, so his ‘’not a penny more’’ claim is already in demise.

But there is another aspect that these groups and the press are willfully avoiding.

The main reason Trump and McDaniel are stating 82% of Americans will see higher taxes, beyond the tax groups asserting the plan will bring higher payments, is that Biden has pledged to remove the Trump tax cuts. During one fundraising event this year, Biden warned his donors they would be feeling the effects of his tax policy.

“I’m going to get rid of the bulk of Trump’s $2 trillion tax cut,” Biden told his crowd, “and a lot of you may not like that but I’m going to close loopholes like capital gains and stepped up basis.”

This is the escape hatch Biden has created for himself, and the media is playing along. His plan will be instituting new taxes on the $400K crowd, but those operating below will be losing the cuts experienced in the Trump plan as well. This is the verbal shell game being played. So technically he is not ‘’raising taxes’’ on lower-income individuals, he is removing tax benefits for those people. 

The end result is a higher tax burden. Certainly the fact you have not had taxes raised on your income will have you feeling better when you end up taking home less of your income.