Given the fact that Democratic presidential candidates such as Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren have embraced radical, far-left policies, it’s not surprising that many voters consider former Vice President Joe Biden to be a moderate. However, a deeper look into his recent tax proposal makes it clear that he is leaning much further left than past Democrats have dared to go.
The former vice president’s tax proposals include raising taxes on corporations and households that earn more than $510,000 a year. He would also treat capital gains income as regular wage-earned income for tax purposes, double taxes for multinational companies, and force large companies to pay at least 15% of all their earnings in taxes to prevent them from using tax loopholes in order to avoid shelling out their earnings to the IRS.
Biden also wants to get rid of many of the tax cuts granted by President Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The campaign expects to raise about $3.4 trillion over a decade via the new and increased taxes, a paltry sum considering the fact that Sen. Warren’s tax proposals would generate anywhere from $26 to $30 trillion over the same time period.
Even fellow “moderate” presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg is proposing tax hikes that would raise more than twice as much as Biden. However, it’s worth noting that failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s 2016 tax package was only half the size of that proposed by Joe Biden. That alone underscores the fact that even the “moderate” wing of the Democratic Party is rapidly moving left. For the record, former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act-related tax hikes were estimated to have cost American citizens about $1 trillion over the course of ten years.
Instead of coming up with various ways to make Americans shell out more of their hard-earned cash, Democrat presidential candidates would do well to consider the fact that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has been wildly successful in boosting economic growth. The passage of the historic bill boosted earnings for average workers as corporations passed on their savings to their employees in the form of bonuses. In other instances, companies passed on the savings via lower prices for consumers.
Trump’s bill stimulated the business community as a whole, resulting in record-low unemployment rates throughout the nation. The United States economy added a whopping 266,000 jobs in November 2019 even as other, more liberal nations struggle to boost their own economies.
While there are liberal naysayers who predict that the boost to the economy won’t last, the truth is that the Tax Cut and Jobs Act has done America a lot of good. And yes, rich people and companies have also benefited along with everyone else. The fact that Democrats want to undo the law simply to spite the current president shows the party is far more concerned with its own agenda than helping the American people.
Contrary to popular misconception, former Vice President Joe Biden is not a moderate Democrat. His $3.2 trillion tax plan makes it clear he believes that businesses and individuals don’t have the right to keep what they earn. Rather, it must be given to the government to “redistribute” as it sees fit.
It is truly terrifying that, in just four short years, the Democratic Party has hurled so far to the left that doubling the last candidate’s tax plan is considered “moderate”.