In another Lucy and Charlie Brown football scenario, the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act that they claimed would help Americans and not raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000 a year could reportedly cost taxpayers in excess of $20 billion in new taxes.
President Biden made a production out of signing the act in August which allegedly introduced $473 billion in new spending wasted on climate and healthcare. But any illusion that it would reduce inflation is about to be blown away.
Middle America will indeed pay new taxes regardless of what Biden and the Democrats claimed to sell them.
Republicans warned that the bill would raise taxes on Americans and do nothing to stop rising prices. And it looks like the unheeded warning is about to hit home in 2023.
(Video Credit: Daily Mail)
The Democrats’ pork-fest includes $430 billion in spending, potentially raises $737 billion over a decade in revenue, and is ridiculously projected to reduce the deficit by approximately $300 billion, according to the Daily Mail.
The Democratically-controlled House of Representatives passed the massive bill 220-207 along party lines after it barely passed the Democratic-held Senate 51-50. Every Republican voted against it and every Democrat voted for it with Vice President Kamala Harris acting as the tie-breaker.
As bad as the bill is, it ended up not including many of Biden’s original social programs from his socialistic Build Back Better proposal.
Democrats crow over it because they claim it raises $265 billion by allowing the government to negotiate with drug companies for lower Medicare prescription drug costs. That remains to be seen and many doubt the premise of that assertion.
The bill goes heavy on climate change, doling out $369 billion for it. Meanwhile, the left is trying to kill off coal plants and natural gas production which is a recipe for disaster and death.
A whopping $6.5 billion gas tax is set to skyrocket household energy costs. Prepare for a shock when you get your gas bill.
In fact, the Inflation Reduction Act pushes three major energy taxes that are going to impact Americans, according to the Daily Mail.
The gas tax could result in a 17 percent increase in the average family’s natural gas bill, according to the American Gas Association.
It didn’t matter that energy costs were already skyrocketing, hitting multi-year highs in the United States, Democrats decided to include this tax in the bill anyway.
It gets worse.
The Daily Mail’s sources are saying that Democrats are proposing a 16.4 cents-per-barrel tax on crude oil and imported petroleum products that will undoubtedly be passed on to consumers in the form of higher gas prices. The tax increase is ostensibly tied to inflation meaning that as inflation jumps, so will the cost at the pump.
The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimates that the move will generate $12 billion in taxes.
Democrats are also putting forth another tax increase that will more than double the current excise taxes on coal production.
If it goes through, the tax rate on coal from subsurface mining would reportedly increase from $0.50 per ton to $1.10 per ton, while the tax rate on coal from surface mining would also increase from $0.25 per ton to $0.55 per ton.
The Joint Committee on Taxation is estimating that this will generate $1.2 billion in taxes that will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher electricity bills.
Think your nest egg is safe? Think again. The Democrats are coming for it as well.
They are proposing a new federal excise tax on stock buybacks, which is expected to reduce the value of household nest eggs and retirement savings accounts, including 401(k)s, IRAs, and pension plans. They want to do this after bailing out union pensions.
The move could hit retirement plans hard. It will also discourage investments and savings. Taxing buybacks may also add to compliance costs for companies and they will in turn pass those costs onto working households.
Democrats are still seeking to implement a 15 percent corporate alternative minimum tax on the financial statement income of American businesses reporting $1 billion in profits for the past three years. This is a blatant wealth tax and will drive business abroad and shut down American small businesses which are the heartbeat of the national economy.
If it comes to fruition, families will see higher prices, fewer jobs, and lower wages at the worst time possible. The Tax Foundation reports that the tax would reduce GDP by at least 0.1 percent and would nix 27,000 jobs.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this would increase taxes by over $225 billion. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, 49.7 percent of the tax would hit the manufacturing industry adding to supply chain disruptions.
The hardest hit by the Democrats’ tax glut will reportedly be the coal industry. The report surmised that “the coal industry faces the heaviest burden of the book minimum tax, facing a net tax hike of 7.2 percent of its pretax book income, followed by automobile and truck manufacturing, which faces a 5.1 percent tax hike.”
All in all, 2023 is already shaping up to be very painful for Americans and they can thank the Biden administration and Democrats for it.