Assuming the unofficial results of the election become official. Here’s the nutshell:
Tax hikes for the rich, broadened health care coverage, and student loan forgiveness were some of the projects on candidate Biden’s to-do list.
Tax hikes on the rich will be tax hikes on the middle class and poor as well. Biden has promised to sharply increase Trump’s tax cuts on America’s businesses—which will result in higher prices to consumers, and those price increases will especially attack our poor. Biden has promised to increase personal income taxes on Americans making over $400,000, but he’s chosen not to index that to inflation, which means that more and more folks will face this tax. What’s not being talked about overmuch is his tax hike promise includes cutting back on the child care tax credit/subsidy—which hits our poor especially hard. Biden’s tax plan also includes vast increases on capital gains we have on our investments—which will badly hit our 401(k)s and IRAs. It’s true enough that taxes on investments inside those instruments go tax deferred until withdrawn, and then they’re taxed at ordinary income tax rates, which might make capital gains tax increases irrelevant. However, there are lots of stock investments outside of those tax deferred instruments, and that cap gains tax hike will deprecate those investment targets—which will deprecate the identical investment targets in otherwise tax deferred accounts.
Broadened health care coverage is the Medicare for All promise he made during the Progressive-Democrat primaries, which he now claims he doesn’t want, but which he signed up to in his Biden-Sanders Unity Platform. Even the watered down version that he now claims would, like his Medicare for All plan, throw millions of Americans off the private- or employer-provided health coverage plans that they currently have and prefer to have. Whether we want that or not. Keep in mind, too, the health care rationing and the loss of usefully timed access to specialized care that centrally controlled national health care systems universally devolve into.
Student loan forgiveness will just drive up the cost of future student loans as lenders are left high and dry. Unless they’re made whole from the forgiveness by…us taxpayers in the form of Federal make-whole payments—which is another tax on all of us, including those of us who make less than $400,000.
This makes Republican control of the Senate a Critical Item, and that control is by no means a done deal, for two reasons. Or maybe one-and-a-half reasons….
One reason is that North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis (R) only holds a 95,600 vote lead over the Progressive-Democrat rival in a race too close to call (as of Sunday). The two Georgia Senate races are going to a 5 Jan run-off, and the two Progressive-Democrat candidates are well positioned to pull out victories. Three wins would flip the Senate outright to Progressive-Democrat control. Two wins would flip the Senate to Progressive-Democrat control via the tie-breaking vote of the Progressive-Democrat Vice President.
The half reason is this: two Republican wins would leave the Senate with a Republican nominal majority of 51-49. Nominal because that would leave Utah Senator Mitt Romney (R) in a too-important position. While he’s usually a Republican vote, his animus toward President Donald Trump is such that he’ll be an unreliable Republican vote on Progressive-Democrat matters that would undermine or altogether undo a Trump policy.
And Biden promised to eliminate the $10K limit on SALT deductions … which would massively benefit his Wall Street donors, leaving the rest of us holding the bag for more federal revenue.
Part of the bailout for the rich that Nancy and Chuck have been holding that same rest of us hostage for regarding Wuhan Virus relief money–none of the one until they get the other, along with billions for wastrel Progressive-Democrat-run States and cities.
Eric Hines