Biden’s policies are ruining the economy
by Isabelle Morales
June 18, 2021

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/bidens-policies-are-ruining-the-economy

The policies being pushed by President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are hurting the economy.

Paying people not to work has meant people are sitting at home instead of returning to their jobs. Trillions of dollars in spending are causing runaway inflation. And now, Biden is proposing the largest tax increases since 1968, which will harm working families and small businesses and throttle much-needed new investment.

There are clear signs the economic recovery is stalling. Federal unemployment benefits pushed by Democrats provide out-of-work people with an additional $300 per week in addition to existing state unemployment. Because of this program, more than 1 in 3 workers could make more money staying at home than working. As a result, countless businesses are unable to find workers to hire. Forty-two percent of small businesses couldn’t fill a job opening in March, according to data by the National Federation of Independent Business.

It is not a coincidence that recent monthly jobs reports have been disappointing. In April, the U.S. economy added just 278,000 jobs, a far cry from Dow Jones estimates that predicted 1 million new jobs. In May, the numbers improved but were still below estimates. Employers added 559,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell by 0.3 percentage points to 5.8%. This fell short of the 650,000 additional jobs analysts had predicted. At present, the U.S. economy still needs an additional 7.6 million filled jobs to reach its February 2020 pre-p******c level. With a vast majority of states and localities open, there is no reason for this lackluster job creation.

People are also seeing significant inflation because of Democratic policies. From May 2020 to May 2021, consumer prices increased by 5%, the fastest increase since 2008.

Many goods and services have increased significantly over the past year. The cost of lumber has increased by 375%, while gasoline has increased 56%. Bacon has increased by 13%, and sugar has increased by 50.9%.

The policies Biden wants to pass in the second half of the year will make the economy worse. The Left is pushing trillions of dollars in new spending that will exacerbate inflationary pressures and will finance this wasteful spending through tax increases that will hit families and businesses hard.

As part of this proposal, Biden wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% and impose a 21% global minimum tax on businesses.

Under Biden, the U.S. corporate rate will be 32% inclusive of state corporate taxes. This would make the U.S. tax rate significantly higher than China’s 25% tax rate and the developed world's average 23.5% rate.

These tax increases will fall on working families in the form of lower wages and fewer jobs. According to Stephen Entin's piece on the Tax Foundation's website, 70% of corporate taxes are borne by labor while other economists argue that anywhere from 20% to 50%, to even 100% of the tax hits workers.

Corporate taxes also increase the costs of household goods and services. A 2020 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that almost one-third of the corporate tax falls on consumers.

Democrats also want to double the capital gains tax and apply this tax to unrealized gains at death. This would result in a capital gains tax that is significantly higher than the rest of the world, which would reduce new investment and threaten access to capital for startups.

If the Left have their way, the capital gains tax will rise to 43.4%. After accounting for state taxes, the rate will be 48.8%, more than double China’s 20% rate and the 23.2% average in the developed world.

The capital gains tax is really a tax on investment, so this tax hike will harm economic productivity and growth at a time that we need more investment to regrow the economy. This will especially harm small businesses, entrepreneurs, and startup businesses across the country that already must fight tooth and nail for access to new capital.

Democrats also want to apply capital gains at death by taking away a provision known as "step-up in basis." This will create a second death tax as the capital gains tax will be imposed on the unrealized gains of every asset owned by a taxpayer when they die. This will impose another tax on family-owned businesses, many of which are asset-rich but cash-poor.

Democratic policies are ruining the economy. They have caused rising inflation and subsidized people not to work. If Biden and the Left have their way, things will only get worse, and families and businesses will be slugged with trillions in new taxes that will put jobs, wages, and competitiveness in jeopardy.

Did you ever see the movie Click with Adam Sandler? I think it was in the early 2000s. He is given a remote that lets him fast-forward through any life event to avoid the things that do not interest him. Before he knows it he is an old man who missed out on his children growing up because he was too busy with work and earning money.

Critical Race Theory is 100% pure, horse crap used to support the chicken crap concept of "equal outcome." It's purpose is to divide us by race and stimulate guilt in order to separate successful people from their property/cash. It's an attempt to bribe the gullible black/brown members of our society for their v**e. After nearly 100 years of government programs, welfare, community outreach and other dog crap, nothing has improved, the lefts tactics have to escalate. Mostly because the democrat controlled large cities are rife with corruption, top to bottom. Being well armed is tantamount to survival amongst your ilk.

Principle 2: The Cost of Something Is What You Give Up to Get It

Because people face trade-offs, making decisions requires comparing the costs and benefits of alternative courses of action. In many cases, however, the cost of an action is not as obvious as it might first appear.

Consider the decision to go to college. The main benefits are intellectual enrichment and a lifetime of better job opportunities. But what are the costs? To answer this question, you might be tempted to add up the money you spend on tuition, books, room, and board. Yet this total does not truly represent what you give up to spend a year in college.

There are two problems with this calculation. First, it includes some things that are not really costs of going to college. Even if you quit school, you need a place to sleep and food to eat. Room and board are costs of going to college only to the extent that they are more expensive at college than elsewhere. Second, this calculation ignores the largest cost of going to college—your time. When you spend a year listening to lectures, reading textbooks, and writing papers, you cannot spend that time working at a job. For most students, the earnings given up to attend school are the largest costs of their education.

The opportunity cost of an item is what you give up to get that item. When making decisions, decision-makers should be aware of the opportunity costs that accompany each possible action. College athletes who can earn millions if they drop out of school and play professional sports are well aware that their opportunity cost of college is very high. It is not surprising that they often decide that the benefit is not worth the cost.