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Quote of the Day: Taxpayers
“The taxpayer – that’s someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination.” – Ronald Reagan
With the almost-certain passage of the Manchin-Schumer Bill, it appears they are raising our taxes again. But don’t worry, the new taxes will only be paid by people making more than $400,000 annually and corporations. Except it does not work that way. Those making more than $400K each year generally got there because they are smart. They will hire accountants and tax preparers to find ways to shelter that money and make less than $400K/year. As for corporations? They will pass the costs of the extra taxes to their customers in the form of increased prices. That results in inflation.
There are more pernicious effects of these tax hikes. Many of those making more than $400K are small business owners. They are likely to defer growth or even retrench. Why knock yourself out only to see your reward seized by the government. Creation of new businesses will likewise be discouraged, so the economy will grow more slowly. Production will remain stagnant or shrink.
On top of that, the bill introduces massive spending. It will pump more dollars into the economy, even as it depresses production of goods and services. More money chasing fewer goods is the definition of an inflationary trend.
Want more bad news? This trend will likely continue until early 2026. Even if the Republicans take House and Senate by solid margins, they will be unable to repeal the bill. Any repeal will be vetoed. They might be able to reduce spending, but even there, I suspect most efforts will be vetoed, and reducing spending does not cancel the pernicious effects of the high taxes.
It will take a Republican President and Republican control of House and Senate fix things. That cannot happen before January 2025. It will take a year of legislative effort to clean up the mess.
Who knows? We might get lucky. They say God looks after drunks, small children, and the United States of America. I hope so. Buckle up.
Published in Group Writing
Getting vetoed is just fine, Beat Brandon over the head with it.
Yes, but it does not fix things. That is what I mean by buckle up. Whatever we do will not reverse this until 2025.The only possibility for that would be to remove the President and Vice President from office and replace them with a Republican Speaker of the House after January 6, 2023. That’s not happening.
We already had control of the White House and Congress and the GOPe worked to stymie Trump.
The GOP won’t do squat no matter if they have 66 seats in the Senate and 435 in the House. Somehow, the Democrats will still block them.
I think cutting corporate taxes was one of the best things Trump did. Now the advertised purpose of this bill is to reduce inflation, it is called the Inflation Reduction Act. Of course, we know that name is about as honest as the Affordable Care Act, which quickly raise premiums for almost everyone.
The Democrats want you to think that you’re “stickin’ it to the man” by making high earners and corporations pay for everything. But if you buy any products whatsoever from corporations, and it is hard not to, then your costs will go up. Higher costs in the name of cutting inflation. And then if you work for a corporation, either directly or have corporate clients, this could hurt you as well. And if own stock . . .
Maybe, Thou shall Covet is a great economic plan, but count me as skeptical.
Short term, you are right. They need to play a longer game. The setup for the next election needs to begin immediately.
The GOPe efforts to stymie Trump did not prevent Trump from creating a booming economy with low inflation between 2017 and the end of 2019. It should not prevent the same assuming a dynamic Republican President is elected in 2024 – Trump or DeSantis, for example. The current inflation and recession is due to actively boneheaded executive action taken to further the religion of Progressivism. It cannot be purged by a Democrat because they all belong to the Church of Progressivism.
I don’t know about that. I think that the reality for lots of high earners is that they will pay a lot more in taxes. And then those increased costs will be born by more people than just high earners because they will have less money to spend.
The next President either will be Trump, and the Congress will work to defeat him, or the President won’t be Trump and won’t even try.
The GOP lies and lies and lies. It never delivers. Never.
And, the way the GOP is running this election, they won’t even have the opportunity to not deliver…
Raising these kind of taxes in a recession with inflation is a recipe for disaster. The corporate minimum will likely lead to massive layoffs as corporations look to cut to costs to pay for the taxes. That is going to put a huge hole in the only current “bright spot” in the economy. This along with the anti energy and farming polices the administration is pursuing could lead to a depression, which could last decades.
Wasn’t Roe v. Wade just overturned? Just over a month ago?
Hey, there’s nothing to worry about. I saw tonight on NBC News that they talked to some unnamed economists who declared that this bill will lower inflation. No comment on whether those unnamed economists were stoned when they made said declaration.
Don’t worry. If the Inflation Inflation Bill doesn’t lower inflation, it will be the fault of Republicans.
First off, that was against the wishes of the GOPe. If they had had their way, would not have happened. That was Trump.
Second, so what? Are the states actually being allowed to make their own laws? No.
Corporations can’t pay taxes. Corporations are thick sheaves of legalese describing the limited liability business interests of the shareholders. The sheaves of legalese can’t pay taxes. They are just piles of documents. They don’t have a wallet. Only people can pay taxes.
The shareholders can pay in the form of reduced share prices. I’m sure the Teacher’s Unions, and the Government Employees Pension Funds will be thrilled to absorb lower returns.
The employees can pay in the form of reduced wages or smaller raises or layoffs.
The customers can pay in the form of higher prices.
But the corporations can’t and don’t pay. And anyone who says they will is lying or doesn’t understand how the world works or both.