70% Tax Rate Thanks to Biden? Economists Warn It'll Be Close for Some of Us
If the United States doesn’t implode from mass illegal immigration or media-stoked race wars, the crushing tax burden from President Joe Biden and other Democrats could deliver the death blow.
The Biden administration is preparing to raise taxes on “high-income earners,” which it defines as Americans making $400,000 a year or more.
However, critics warn that the Democrats’ tax hikes would have a catastrophic impact on lower-income people as well.
If Democrats get their way, millions of Americans should “get ready for 70% tax rates,” according to the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, an economic advocacy group.
The organization, whose goal is to promote U.S. prosperity, was founded in 2015 by economists Steve Forbes, Steve Moore, Arthur Laffer and Larry Kudlow.
“The Biden tax plan that Congress will start debating this week or next would raise the top income tax rate to 39.6% from 37% today,” the committee wrote in its newsletter Monday.
“But he also would impose a new payroll tax of 15% on earnings over $400,000, which could be as little as $200,000 each for a married couple. The combined payroll/income tax rate would bring the marginal tax rate on an additional hour of work to roughly 54%.”
However, the overall tax rate would balloon to a staggering 70 percent once you add in state income taxes from high-tax states run by Democrats.
“Hence, if you live in a high-tax state, like New York, New Jersey, or California your marginal tax rate will start to approach 70%,” the committee said. “But it is worse than that. There is a proposal to raise the income tax in California, New Jersey, and New York.
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“In the California General Assembly, there is a bill to raise the income tax rate to 16.5%. In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed a two percentage point tax hike, which would raise the income tax in New York City to 15.5%.”
The committee continued: “If these taxes were enacted, both states would have combined federal-state marginal income taxes on wages and salaries of right at 70%. New York and California would become virtually the highest tax places in the world.”
So the question is: If you’re forced to give away most of your earnings every year, why would you stay in parasitic California or New York state? The answer is, you won’t.
Just ask billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk or millionaire podcaster Joe Rogan, both of whom fled California in 2020, citing its crushing taxes and other destructive left-wing policies.
Democrats gleefully cheer “taxing the rich” because they think penalizing wealthy people won’t harm everyday Americans. But as usual, they’re delusional and woefully short-sighted.
For example, New York City has numerous residents who make more than $400,000 a year. To Democrats, the rich are the “bad guys” because they’re successful and not the perpetual victims those on the left patronizingly adopt as pets because it makes them feel superior.
In reality, high earners subsidize a massive cottage industry by employing armies of nannies, fitness trainers, maids, home chefs, dog walkers and other low-income workers.
All these people would lose their jobs if Democrats tax rich people to such an extent that high-income earners no longer can afford their services.
The Biden administration is also planning a separate corporate tax hike, which the Tax Foundation estimates would destroy 159,000 jobs.
While Democrats cheer taxing corporations, they ignore that these companies employ hundreds, thousands or even millions of Americans in the cities and states where they’re headquartered.
Slapping sky-high taxes on corporations or handcuffing them with onerous regulations is a surefire way to drive those businesses out of your city or state.
The Biden administration and Democrats insist that they need to raise taxes on Americans in order to pay for their pork-filled $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package and other left-wing agenda items.
More than 2 million illegals could receive COVID relief checks. https://t.co/QkWk7KMJMT
— The Western Journal (@WestJournalism) March 23, 2021
However, a better approach might simply be to close our borders, stop giving away billions of dollars every year to countries that hate us and stop subsidizing the millions of illegal aliens who broke federal laws to sneak into the country.
Preventing a crisis is far easier than trying to contain it after it metastasizes.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
