Trickle Down Taxes

The Democrats are generally consistent in their demand to raise taxes—but only on the "rich," they claim. After all, feeding the politics of envy has been a winning strategy for them in some elections. Everybody knows that their proposal to increase taxes only "on those making more that $400,000 per year" is nonsense; that there simply aren't enough of those people to pay for their multi-trillion dollar "new deals" and expanded dependency programs, but the Dems count on the innumeracy of the general public. It works—sometimes. They love to talk about "trickle down" economics. In actuality, their party position is "trickle down taxes."

Yet in the latest negotiation on the next wave of COVID-19 relief, it looks like the Dems want to give a major tax break to the rich. Elle Reynolds reports:

As the White House and House and Senate leaders continue trying to decide how to distribute more deficit spending on items tagged “coronavirus,” Democrats have come under fire for pushing a $137 billion tax break for the wealthy. The proposal, which was also part of a 1,800-page bill the Democrat-led House passed in May, would remove the current $10,000 limit on state and local tax deductions from federal taxes through 2021.

The richest Americans use this tax break, which effectively subsidizes high-tax states by lowering their fiscal burdens to high-income taxpayers. The Tax Policy Center, an affiliate of the Brookings Institution, estimated the proposal would give an average tax cut of $33,000 to the top 1 percent of income earners. Over half of the benefits of the proposal would go to that top 1 percent.

The cynicism and hypocrisy of this move are astonishing. Dem leadership tells us that they and only they care about the suffering caused by COVID-19 lockdown policies (championed exclusively by the Dems in recent months). Yet they delay passage of a relief bill in order to enact policies that give tax breaks to the "rich." 

Very few of the people who have taken a hit due to Team Apocalypse's insistence that the country be locked down paid more than $10,000 in state and local taxes in the year before the lockdown. Yet the Dems feel compelled to help the limousine liberals in cities like New York and Los Angeles pay less in federal taxes. The real problem is that these wealthy people are pushing back on both the exorbitant tax rates in blue cities and at the same time have fled due to the dystopian atmosphere created by Dem leaders who have randomly shut down parts of their cities due to the virus. 

So the relief bill is delayed—not due to technical issues, but because the Dems need to mollify their most important donors—the wealthy in blue cities. 

The folks who can't pay their rent, or buy enough groceries, or pay for outside child care or tutoring when Dem catastrophists insist that schools be closed should ask Joe Biden to comment—if they can find him.