Biden, SALT, Rich Man’s Tax Break
Where is Biden coming from? As with most Democrats when they discovered deficit spending the flood gates were open to spill cash on pet projects, questionable uses, and obfuscated purposes using money on items not directly related to titled budget busting legislation. Under the cover of Covid the Biden/Harris Administration, whoever is really behind the machine, has found new avenues, channels and ways to use tax payor dollars as well as burdening taxpayers with additional future indebtedness to support programs considered ‘progressive’ and necessary to restore the economy from the Covid lockdown. Those that voted for Biden knew what to expect, and they are being rewarded, but is it really what they expected?
Two programs, one underway and one in process, plan to spend over 8 years or so $4.8 trillion dollars. That will add to the almost $30 trillion we are now burdened with. That burden will be greater as interest rates increase. Biden plans major tax increase on just about all Americans, directly and indirectly. Indirect taxes are already being felt in the price of gasoline, resulting from the pipeline stoppage. Hidden in the Biden plan is a massive tax decrease on the wealthy, on property holders. How is this being ignored? SALT is to be rescinded. And already the ‘no taxes on those earning less that $400,000 is being tested, even ignored. Are we being lied to? Are We The People being ignored, in favor of We the Democrats. Are States Rights being eroded anew by the Democrats (as under Carter by bringing into the big tent, Education and Energy). Are we seeing the rights or workers, the Right to Work laws, facing Union favoritism by politicians protecting a source of significant campaign funding.
There was the $1.9 trillion ARP (American Rescue Plan), and now the $2.9 trillion Infrastructure plan (AJP - American Jobs Plan).
Under plan 1.9 ARP, it is estimated $400 billion goes to individuals. As for Covid relief and economy kickstarting, there is a vacuum. Instead, the remainder, $1.5 billion, there is extending unemployment benefits (@ $300/week) until November, $30 billion for rental and mortgage assistance, $86 billion to bailout pensions, expansion of the child tax-credit, $3000 (6-17 year olds) and $3,600 (under 6) to parents with children, $10,000 tax credit on unemployment benefits (as benefits are taxable), $130 billion for schools, $40 billion for colleges, plus money to FEMA for food and shelter, increased COBRA (health insurance) funding, Amtrak relief and other favored Democratic programs. Concern was expressed for States and local governments that might take the money and reduce taxes, for which there was a caveat saying, ‘do not do that.’ Some infrastructure spending was also included. Deficit spending is to be used for the 1.9.
Here comes the 2.9 AJP. This is an ambitious plan to be funded via tax hikes. When you think infrastructure you conjure up roads and bridges. In this plan there is more to subsidize the purchase of electric vehicles than for roads and bridges ($174 billion vs. $115 billion). There is $100 billion each for rebuilding schools, speedier broadband, and power lines to include transitioning to ‘green energy.’ There is more for Amtrak, Unions and minorities. The plan sees measures for increased competition with China (not sure how that is infrastructure), electric charging stations, mass transit ($85 billion) and improved urban planning in low income areas impacted by prior highway construction.
SALT - The State and Local Tax deduction was limited to $10,000 under Trump. Effectively this was a major tax on the wealthy. The Republicans did not do a great job explaining this limitation/tax on the 1%, and even others. Democrats keep wanting to tax the 1%. And Trump did so. Where property taxes are high, and when there are those who own multiple properties, this limit is costly to the owners, regardless of wealth. In Florida where property taxes in many areas average $20,000 per million of valuation, a new homeowner with a purchase for $5,000,000 will pay $100,000 in property taxes. Before SALT the tax dedication was worth over $30,000 in tax benefits, but after, only $3,000. The impact is a tax increase of $27,000. How did the MSM miss that? And now Biden wants to eliminate the deduction limit. That is not a tax increase for the Federal Government, but a tax decrease estimated at $60 billion annually. Biden needs money to fund his programs, but gives $60 billion back to the 1%ers, at the same time saying they need to be taxed even more. What? So just what are Biden’s handlers thinking? Where is the hypocrisy? The property tax revenues for States does not change, only the revenues to the Fed.
From Fox News online:
- The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act imposed a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions, which was perceived as having a negative effect on wealthy residents in blue states – like New York and New Jersey – where income and property taxes are higher.
- Repealing the SALT cap, however, will not raise revenue, as Psaki noted. It would mean certain individuals would receive a larger deduction for state and local taxes.
- Republicans have characterized the effort to repeal the cap as a tax cut for the wealthy. An analysis conducted by the Tax Foundation estimates its repeal would cost $600 billion in revenue over the course of a decade, with the largest relief aimed at the top 1% of earners.”
- President Biden is billing his sprawling $2.25 trillion spending proposal as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bolster the U.S. economy, but a new analysis published Wednesday (4/7) shows that it could slash growth in the long term due to a slew of tax hikes.
- Overall, the measure (2.9) would cost about $2.7 trillion and raise about $2.1 trillion in tax revenue, according to findings from the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a nonpartisan group at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
From the WSJ:
“This still doesn’t explain why Mr. Biden is lending his presidency to unrepresentative activist groups to pursue an agenda for which he has no mandate. So much for the talk of a modest and dignified “transitional” presidency. He, or someone on his behalf, has substituted a Tijuana-or-bust progressive Hail Mary that is quickly becoming needlessly and noxiously divisive, that has Mr. Biden uttering lies and demagoguery as scurrilous as any his predecessor uttered.”
…..
We are experiencing great inconsistencies in the Biden/Harris Administration decision making. 80,000,000 citizens, we think, voted for the current team. What did they expect? Are they happy now? If expanding, or stimulating, the economy is an objective, jobs are essential. Yet there are many businesses, large and small, trying to hire workers. But workers are enjoying their unemployment benefits, and their stimulus money, and are not ready to go back to work. Why would they? Are these the persons that voted for Biden? There are employees even saying ’no’ to over-time opportunities. Employees do not want the extra work, but prefer going to their pub, or home, to enjoy themselves. What has happened to the incentive to work? The incentive to better our lives? Has our society reached a tipping point believing the Federal Government can provide for all needs, as well as make or cause an economy to prosper? And with 2.9 passing, what comes next? 3.5?
We can never forget the Government runs on tax revenues. What the government does not tax, it regulates or licenses, requiring money be paid to the government, and more. Governments, more so liberal governments than conservative, have become champions of legal thievery. Deficit spending is not fiscally responsible and has limits, but are there those in government that have no appreciation or understanding or even care about limits. Kicking the can down the road appears well established in the corridors of the Federal Government.
We are inundated with calls for racial equality, making claims of ‘racial inequality’ and ‘white supremacy’ to create guilt and pander to leftist liberals with good intentions, but bad solutions. What they suggest are bushels of newly printed money thrown in the air will land on solar, and wind plants, Tesla cars and Volts, and minority neighborhoods (not just black, but all races of poor, black, white, hispanic, asian, LGBT, trans, et al) and result in a new America sans any prejudices. That will never happen no matter how far the PC police redefine and rewrite their own lexicon.
Biden was scared by Harris when she attacked his racism during pre-election Democratic debates, and now he seems to cower to any suggesting that he is even ‘white.’ Did the DNC put the cackling Harris in place as VP as a reminder of Biden’s racist history? Is the knee-jerk cry of ‘racism’ a result of the success Democrats have had from coast to coast, supported by most of the media, quiet, even silent, on matters all Americans should be made aware of? What is the real solution? Or has the pendulum towards Socialism swung too far, in part, pushed by the ‘anti-Trump’ contingent that voted blindly for Biden, ignoring the consequences of their own principled biases, or call it ‘liberal supremacy.’ Will we ever see transparency again? Trump was obvious. Biden is obsequious to socialist/progressive phantoms. Can order be restored after the 2022 elections? That is my prayer.
Know that Biden is putting SALT on the wounded tax payor being deceived by rhetoric the President spews from third-party texts with words and statements that he does not even understand. If asked about ‘Jim Crow,’ he would answer, if he could answer on his own, “I knew Jim Crow.” He would think he was black (he was white), and still lives (buried in absentia, ceremonially) aware of, but ignorant, of the attempts in 1964 and 1965 (Civil and Voting Rights Acts under LBJ) to eradicate attitudes towards blacks depicted in minstrel shows. Biden is more Jim Crow than any prior President. Biden is spending to erase his own guilt, hide his own racist nature, cowardly deceptive (yet obvious and hypocritical) in favoring his party and party mavens over even the 80,000,000 that voted for him.
As an aside, I support infrastructure projects...like the southern border wall and the Keystone Pipeline.
I would very much enjoy hearing your views.
by
Thomas W. Balderston
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