Remember Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Puritan society in his novel, The Scarlet Letter? Poor Hester Prynne violated the laws of the church, which meant that she broke society’s laws, too. At the beginning of the novel, the reader joins Hester as she leaves the safety of the town prison and makes her way back into the society that jailed her. Reading the book for the first time in the 11th grade, I had a hard time understanding how, in a free society, the religion of one group could also form its judicial system. That makes the laws of God the same thing as the laws of man. Separation of church and state was also an 11th grade U.S. history lesson, so we students figured no more Hesters could be jailed for breaking the laws of her religion . Or so we thought. We fought a war 250 years ago to separate the colonies from a king who was not only ruler of the government but leader of the church. A quick walk through British history shows what a mess that ideal leads to: remember Henry VIII
President Joe Biden officially announced his 2024 budget today.
So let's take a look at some of the bullet points in this proposal:
- Minimum tax on billionaires - 25 % minimum tax on the wealthiest 0.1%.
- Medicare Trust Fund solvency - households above $400,000 and certain types of wealthy investor passthrough businesses will pay a 1.2% tax into the Medicare trust fund to guarantee solvency until at least 2050.
- Repealing the Trump 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy
- Reforms taxes on capital gains - proposes taxing capital gains at the same rate as wage income for those with more than $1 million in income.
- Reversing the Trump Tax Giveaway to Large Corporations - reverses the enormous Trump Corporate tax cut and increases the minimum tax rate to 28%.
- Minimum International Corporate Tax - previously, Biden negotiated an international minimum corporate tax with 130 countries. He is now proposing an increase to 21% to prevent offshoring.
- Expand Medicare’s Ability to Negotiate Drug Prices - increases the ability of Medicare to negotiate and lower the price of medications
- Expands the Requirement that Drug Companies Pay Rebates When They Increase Prices Faster than Inflation - will now apply to commercial drug sales and not just Medicare
- Eliminating Tax Subsidies for Oil and Gas - levels the playing field so clean energy like solar and others can compete. Besides, the oil and gas companies made record profits off of our pain at the pump.
- Lower Medicaid Spending by Addressing Excessive Payments to Medicaid Managed Care Organizations.
- Eliminate Tax Subsidies for Real Estate - closes the tax loophole for real estate investors. This likely targets the mega-corporations that are gobbling up properties and raising rents.
- Eliminate Tax Subsidies for Cryptocurrency Transactions - apparently $24 billion will be saved by eliminating the tax loophole.
- Reduces the deficit by $3 trillion over 10 years - all of the proposed points will reduce the deficit and improve fairness in the tax code.
There are many, many more budget points and will further detail them in another post.
So why is this proposed budget so brilliant ?
Biden and the House Republicans are in a battle regarding budget cuts and the debt ceiling. The Republicans want to force Biden to cut programs (especially entitlement programs since they have been talking about it for many years) in order for them to pass a bill increasing the debt ceiling in the next few months.
The Republicans don't want to tell anyone what they want to cut because the grand majority of each budget is defense spending, Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.
They don't want to cut defense spending since they have always crowed about America having the strongest military in the history of humankind and they are also pointing to China as being a mortal enemy.
They also cannot propose cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security because they are super popular programs with the American electorate (even their base).
Did you notice the common theme in all of the budget points listed above ?
You are right ! They are all taxes on the rich or corporations !
Consider this new poll detailed in an article by BlueVirginia: "New Poll: 80% of Virginia Voters Believe Profitable Corporations and the Wealthy Do Not Pay Enough in Taxes".
This means that much of Biden's proposed budget falls in line with what the public already wants.
The public wants tax increases for the rich and corporations and no cuts to defense, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
Biden looks like a very responsible President (and the only adult in the room) by helping most Americans, by increasing fairness in the tax code, and securing Medicare and other necessary programs for many years to come.
I believe that Biden really does care about all Americans and wants to correct systemic and economic inequality but ...
... if he can also stick it to the Republicans by daring them to cut any of these popular programs that help Americans in my tax bracket or give the rich and corporations more benefits then that is an added bonus for him and us.
The other option is for the House Republicans to let the United default on its debt and ruin the American and world economies - I would not want to be McCarthy right now.
Biden 1, McCarthy 0.
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