Democrats Back on Their Heels, As Biden’s Polling Plunges and Manchin Presses for His ‘Strategic Pause’ By Lawrence Kudlow
https://www.nysun.com/national/democrats-are-back-on-the-heels-as-bidens-polling/91669/
With President Biden’s polls once again plunging and wide gaps in the Democratic Party over spending and taxing along with some serious grassroots opposition from groups like the save America coalition, I really do believe the Democrats are on the run. They’re back on their heels. They can’t get their story straight.
Again this evening I express my support for Senator Joe Manchin’s “strategic pause” to carry over big budget deals until the spring of 2022. Our motives might be a bit different, but our goals right now are similar. If the Democratic budget resolution doesn’t get through reconciliation until then — which admittingly is an improbable longshot — then the whole thing will die.
I do believe public Democratic weakness after the Biden meetings and the nonsensical press conference with Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi have a lot to do with the huge stock market rally today.
While insiders tell me that President Biden told democratic leaders to come up with their own topline on spending and, I presume taxes, at this point that project looks impossible with Mr. Manchin at between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion, the Bernie Sanders budget scored at $3.5 trillion, and the actual gimmick-free budget scored at about $5.5 trillion.
That’s some spread.
Plus, too, as the Tax foundation estimates show, even the Ways and Means Committee’s tax mark up, which I believe would do great harm to the economy, even that will only produce a net revenue increase of $1 trillion with Laffer Curve dynamic scoring. So $1 trillion won’t pay for $3.5 trillion or $5.5 trillion.
So there’s another problem.
The attack on drug companies with excise taxes, price controls, and forced subsidies will not yield anything close to $700 billion — if any of it gets through at all. Reconciliation, by the way, is, under the old Byrd rule, supposed to reduce deficits. The Democratic wish list will raise deficits and debt by at least $15 trillion over the next 10 years, and probably a lot more.
Then you have the so-called Democratic House moderates who do tend to be more pro-business. Their holy grail is a restoration of the state and local tax deduction, known as SALT, in order to satisfy their wealthy suburban voters. By itself, this could be a deal breaker in the House.
Republicans correctly oppose this in the name of tax reform. Why should Nebraska and Oklahoma pay for New York and New Jersey? The far-left progressives don’t like it because they look at everything through the lens of class warfare, and this one doesn’t fit the bill because it would help rich people, and we mustn’t do that, right?
Wrong.
What ought to happen here is that the Trump corporate tax cut and business expensing package should be made permanent. The top tax rate should go down to 30%, while the income tax base should be broadened. Alas, that’s not going to happen.
Meanwhile on the spending side, the key reason I’d like to see this bill killed is the dramatic rise in entitlement spending.
The federal government paid leave family plan along with a trillion dollar increase in the child tax credit, which is a massive spending hike through the tax code, along with increases in child dependency care (the old AFDC welfare program) and free universal Pre-K education plus other dependent care. These are middle class entitlements with eligibility up to — hold your breath — up to $200,000.
The progressive left wish list also includes forgiving student loans up to $50,000. This is another bad idea. This is the middle class bailing out rich people. No, I’m not a class warrior.
Yet if the affluent want to go to college, then pay for it, and go to college. We’ve already deferred student loan payments by more than $100 billion.
At zero interest rates, borrowers should be refinancing their loans, reducing principal, and interest to substantially lessen the debt burden. The worst offenders here are these permanent grad students who can’t, or are unwilling to, get a job. I don’t want to forgive them for anything.
All these middle class entitlements which meet the left-wing progressive dream of a universal guaranteed basic income have no work or education requirements. Work and education are the best anti-poverty programs ever known.
Work and education are the keys to climbing the ladder of opportunity. The democrats want to try to transform the very essence of the American idea. They want to destroy the core fabric of American society. The government will pay you. No need to work. That is big government socialism.
That is an assault on free enterprise capitalism. That is a sure way to increase poverty, increase inequality, reduce labor participation, and move us further on the road to serfdom. Is this really what we want? I don’t think so, and I think the public increasingly agrees with my point of view. So, just to coin a phrase, save America — kill the bill.
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