By Allen Nitschelm
Last week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki made a startling announcement during her briefing: the White House was going to renege on candidate Joe Biden’s pledge not to raise any taxes on anyone making under $400,000 a year. Instead, this threshold will be applied to family income, not individual income as Biden repeatedly stated. This will substantially raise taxes on many millions more Americans, some of whom undoubtedly voted for Joe Biden thinking the higher tax rates would not apply to them.
Biden’s tax plan was simple and he repeated it often. He said if you earned under $400,000, you wouldn’t pay an extra penny in taxes. He also said he will raise taxes on corporations back to the pre-Trump-tax-cut rates, but not for “mom and pop” type businesses (where high income is often passed through to an individual tax return for the self-employed.). The booming economy we enjoyed prior to the pandemic, fueled in large part by cutting taxes and regulations, will be reversed by the Biden administration at the same time we increase our deficit spending by borrowing several more Trillion dollars, much of it having nothing to do with Covid-relief.
$400,000 a year is $33,000 per month, or $7,692 gross per week. For an individual, this is a very substantial income, even pre-tax. But for a family, especially in a high-tax, high-expense state like Massachusetts, it would be considered upper-middle class. If you consider federal, state, and local taxes, including property taxes, excise taxes, and sales taxes, and then add the substantial cost of children and saving for their education, putting aside money for retirement, and then paying your mortgage, doing home repairs and upkeep, having two cars, paying utilities and groceries, and maybe taking a family vacation, there is not a lot of money left over, if any. It would not be inconceivable to imagine that some families might choose to have one spouse work part-time because the extra income is not worth the extra effort at the higher tax rate.
This bait-and-switch by slippery Joe Biden is being hidden from view by the media, who are now trying to rewrite history to make it sound like this is what Biden meant all along. Not so fast.
The use of the word “anyone” refers to an individual, not a family. Joe Biden said repeatedly that he would not raise taxes on “anyone” earning under $400,000 a year. He repeated this pledge just last week.
“Anybody making more than $400,000 will see a small to a significant tax increase,” Biden said during an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “You make less than $400,000, you won’t see one single penny in additional federal tax.”
But Psaki said this $400,000 threshold referred to family income, not individual income.
That is also not what Biden said on the campaign trail. He clearly and repeatedly said it would apply to “people” who earn over $400,000. In one analysis I read, the journalists took great pains to explain that some taxpayers might have inadvertent tax increases not envisioned by Biden due to quirks in the tax code. And a few in the Liberal media even suggested that this might be applied to families and not just individuals. But that isn’t what Biden said.
The Obama-Biden administration also said they would raise taxes on high-earners, but their messaging was much clearer, with households earning over $250,000 a year targeted. But Joe Biden’s campaign rhetoric, and even what he has said as President, clearly supports higher taxes on individuals earning over $400,000 a year, not joint-filers. Here is a video clip of candidate Barack Obama pledging not to raise taxes on families earning under $250,000. Joe Biden was Obama’s running mate and he surely knows the difference between the words “families” and “individuals.”
Donald Trump ran a campaign ad that PolitiFact reviewed as “false” because Trump suggested Biden was going to raise taxes for everyone, not just corporations and the extremely wealthy. I include this link because it has at least three videos of Biden repeating his statement that taxes would only be raised for anyone who made over $400,000. Now that Biden appears to be changing the goalposts, I wonder if PolitiFact will run a follow-up article?
Joe Biden plans to violate one of the central pledges of his campaign, which was not to raise taxes, not a single penny, on individuals earning under $400,000.
Sign up for our Acton Forum email list here
Please follow Acton Forum on Facebook here
Technically,your point is well taken. He did say “anyone”. But who really cares? And a family that makes over $400,000 per year can certainly afford to pay a wee bit more in taxes. A real conservative position would ask most people to pay something towards their “rescue”. How will we pay for the essential infrastructure we need? The recent deferred maintenance attitude is escalating the costs. And how will we pay the increased debt service that will inevitably follow increased interest rates?
Compared to the hourly lies and flip flops of the “Former Guy” your point is just nitpicking. How about we “jump on Joe” for something with more meat on it. We can find something, I am sure 🙂
Hi Bill,
Thanks for agreeing with my research.
Do we care that politicians routinely lie and that people who trusted and voted for Biden based on this particular lie were misled? I guess it depends on whether you think voters should have the expectation that politicians will tell the truth and will fulfill campaign promises.
The issue isn’t whether the government needs more revenue (or needs to cut expenses, or some combination of the two). It isn’t like Biden has been in office and just discovered we have an infrastructure problem or there is a pandemic. He knew these things when he made the promises!
Your bringing in President Trump is unfortunate, but not surprising given the nature of partisanship these days. So let me respond by saying that this isn’t Biden’s only fib either. He promised to be a moderate (he hasn’t been), he promised to be bipartisan (he hasn’t been), he tried to take credit for the vaccines (Trump did that), he cancelled the Keystone Pipeline (I believe he said he wouldn’t, but he certainly said he would protect blue-collar jobs and this killed thousands of them), he has waffled on the filibuster (he said he would keep it, now he is open to changing it), he ruined the Southern border and now blames Trump (actually, it was his administration that changed the rules and promised free haven to the illegal immigrants), he has not allowed the press in (after promising to be the most transparent administration in history), and he hasn’t held a press conference yet (one is scheduled tomorrow, almost two months after he took office.) He also rammed through another $1.9 Trillion for Coronavirus relief, using the budget reconciliation process for a party-line vote, which reportedly contains only 9% of its money going directly to Coronavirus relief. And he plans a massive “infrastructure” bill probably using the same playbook. That could total $3 Trillion.
So far, Biden is a complete failure. Is that enough “meat” for us to criticize Biden over?
Allen
“Biden is a complete failure”. Ha! The vast majority of Americans (Republicans included) are pleased with the way he has approached the Covid problem and the passage of a bill to assist those desperately in need of help – just to feed their kids and stay in their homes.
“he ruined the Southern border” Say what? Let’s apply some perspective here. It is the people smugglers who lied to their cargo and said they would be welcome at the border. Not Biden. The new administration is struggling to apply humane treatment to a wave of immigrants escaping violence and starvation – with no help from Congress. This flood of desperate people headed north has been with us for many years regardless of president. And we ain’t seen nothin’ yet. The impacts of climate change have made food insecurity a “crisis” all over the world. We should expect that millions will leaving Central America and Africa – just to survive. How we handle this will define us as humans. Will we think like a species or just a bunch of selfish tribes? Will we practice what our religious faiths have always taught or will we sink deeper into demonization of the “other”?
The “Covid problem” was addressed very successfully by former President Trump, and Biden is merely implementing his policies and plan, albeit successfully and ably. So yes, I will give him credit for what he has done about Covid. He is “almost” a complete failure, however. I won’t be able to go through the entire list, but here is a quick sampling:
1. Promised to be a moderate, and is Far Left.
2. Promised to work with Republicans, and has not.
3. Promised to support keeping the filibuster, and now calls it racist.
4. Promised to be the most transparent and is the least transparent.
5. Climate Change is not the most pressing issue to face America, even if you believe in it (which I do not.) I’d say China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran are all much more pressing than this issue.
6. His cancellation of Keystone Pipeline and stopping drilling on public lands will lead to energy dependency once again, an economic mistake and a geopolitical disaster.
7. He has not been candid with the American people about his kickbacks from China or the role his son Hunter played there and in Ukraine. With Donald Trump no longer around, how come nobody is asking him to come clean about this issue? Public corruption is the worse kind of corruption and one which we should never tolerate as citizens.
As to the border, there was a surge of immigrants (remember the caravans?) organized by Democrats in America to create a crisis for Donald Trump because he wanted to change immigration, stop illegal immigration, build a wall, end chain migration, etc. The surge was to try to get as many people to come as possible to pressure Trump. The illegal aliens’ incentive was to come before the border was closed.
In 2020, after much of the Wall was built, the influx went way down. Trump also clamped down because of the pandemic which also helped.
In 2021, it is way up. So this is all on Biden.
As to your statement that Biden did not welcome illegal immigration, that is just false. He is on tape urging people to come. I believe it was in the first Democratic debate. He has made similar supporting statements and CONTINUES THEM TO THIS DAY. He said he “would not apologize” for allowing minors and some families to enter the US. That is encouraging people to come, period.
We are “selfish tribes.” We call these organizations “nations” and we have the right and duty to protect our borders. If you disagree with this, then I urge you to throw open the “tribe” at your own home and invite a couple dozen illegal immigrants to join you and your family. By the way, you have to pay all their expenses because they are indigent. Let me know when you have done so and I’ll visit, take pictures, and tell your story about what happened.
Allen
This article is a good example of why the BidenHarris administration will not only survive but thrive embedding all manner of mischief in executive orders and massive freebie bills that exchange rights for silver. 75,000,000 voted against BidenHarris. While I am unsure how many were ardently pro-Trump I do have more than a strong sense that 10s of millions of BidenHarris voters voted against the man who will soon wear an orange suit. These people together with the entire Black community are up for grabs. The dishonesty over the $400,000 lower bound is meaningless for them. Economic opportunity and political power are very important as would a true accounting of where, that is, in whose pockets, the stimulus money ends up. At some point, the powers to be will begin to act as if millions of voters and old-established voting blocks don’t matter. New sources of strength will be increased and that will all that is necessary to continue this walk away from the liberal democratic capitalistic society that has brought more freedom and economic progress to the world than was ever imagined possible by the past’s most visionary thinkers. The time is short to show these displaced voters that there is a better future, rooted in the past, that they not only have a stake in but can flourish in. Rather than be crushed by the mistakes of the past we can learn from them and move forward.
Hi Terry,
Thanks for your post.
Two responses. First, the quickie: former President Trump will not be jailed, at least not based on the issues raised in New York as I understand them. It is a stretch to say he violated campaign finance laws by paying “hush money” to someone when he wasn’t a politician and had held no elective office at the time. And his defense (that he wanted to shield himself and his family from embarrassment) sounds more than plausible. The entire process was an excuse to get his tax returns and make them public, or go “fishing” for other issues. Perhaps one day the IRS audit will be done and Trump will release his returns as a private citizen! (I’m not holding my breath).
Second, you seem to dismiss Biden’s lie as not mattering to his voters, but I disagree. I think there are two ways this can come back to hurt him:
A. Anyone who voted to raise “other people’s taxes” only to find out they were mistaken and their taxes are going up will be disillusioned and won’t support him. This is similar to what did in George H.W. Bush when he broke his “no new taxes” pledge. The percentage of directly affected taxpayers will be relatively small, but they will be motivated.
B. Anyone who understands why this is happening (Biden’s original proposal would never raise enough money, neither will this change lowering the threshold) will realize that even this modified pledge is going to be broken. Yes, “everyone’s” taxes are going to be raised by the policies of the Biden administration (just like Trump predicted, by the way). And if you count things like fees and increased costs (take gasoline, based on Biden’s war on fossil fuels for example), the expenses for most people will be significant, direct tax increase for them or not.
I’m sure there are some (like me) who oppose this massive tax increase based on principle, but those people are already likely against Biden anyway.
Biden will try to offset his looming loss of popularity with massive giveaways (i.e., the Obama plan) but when the printing presses eventually stop, when the rich have successfully shielded their income, and when the Far Left start calling for broader and deeper tax increases, Americans in the Middle Class will react, much like many reacted to the “defund the police” movement and riots over the summer.
I hear in your response a call to return to the roots of the Democratic Party, one that found much common ground with Republicans on a host of issues. Unfortunately for us and the country, this is unlikely to happen given the Far Left turn of the Party and the threat to “primary” centrist Democrats if they don’t toe the line.
Biden could have stood up to this and acted like the “moderate” he often claimed to be, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. Tomorrow’s press conference should be interesting…
Allen