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Democrats Say They're Fighting Inequality. But Many of Their Policies Favor the Rich.
Reason Roundup ^ | 10.26.2023 | VERONIQUE DE RUGY

Posted on 11/02/2023 5:36:51 AM PDT by george76

Over the last several years, they have worked nonstop to ease the tax burden of their high-income constituents..

In the grand ballroom of American politics, Democrats have long waltzed to the melody of progressivism while ridiculing Republicans' preference for outdated tax cut tunes. Ironically, they don't want to pay for their style of big government with higher taxes on ordinary Americans, which their expansionary ambitions would require. Instead, they loudly proclaim that they want to tax the rich. It remains to be seen how true this is.

Indeed, while Democrats profess their devotion to social justice and fight against income inequality, they often push for policies that favor the rich. Take their nonstop battle over the last five years to ease the tax burden of their high-income constituents.

The State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap, part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), placed a $10,000 limit on the amount of state and local taxes that can be deducted from federal taxable income. This move predominantly affected high earners in high-tax states like New York, California, and many others that are Democratic strongholds.

That's a tax hike on the rich. This shouldn't bother Democrats, who are usually happy to demonstrate their egalitarian chops by clamoring for that very thing. Yet this time, by demanding repeal of the SALT cap, they are on the front lines of a battle to restore tax breaks for the rich. As it turns out, when affluent Californians and Northeasterners felt the pinch, Democrats were ready to cha-cha for tax relief.

Contrast this with the refusal by moderate New York Republicans to vote for Jim Jordan (R–Ohio) for House speaker in exchange for doubling the deduction cap to $20,000 for individuals and $40,000 for married couples. Now, this might mean these guys really didn't want Jordan as speaker, but they wouldn't roll over even in exchange for tax cuts for their own constituencies.

Would New York Democrats be so principled? Back in 2021, 17 of 19 members of this delegation threatened to block a Democrat-sponsored infrastructure bill if the SALT deduction cap wasn't entirely repealed. I would have been OK with that crony bill failing; I highlight this incident only to reveal some Democrats' commitment to tax breaks for rich blue-state voters.

Add to this the fact that big government tends to work out well for people with big bank accounts. Billions of dollars in tax credits and subsidies have gone de facto to high-income taxpayers to buy expensive electric cars, or to large, well-connected companies to build green infrastructure or semiconductors they would have produced anyway.

For all the populist huffing and puffing, many big-government policies squarely hurt middle-class and poorer Americans. A good example is Democrats' starring role in Congress' refusal to reform insolvent entitlement spending. It amounts to supporting an enormous transfer of money, through regressive payroll taxes, from the young and poor to the old and rich.

Even Democrats' support for raising the corporate income tax rate from its current 21 percent to 25 percent is inconsistent with their populist self-identification. As economists have long known, most, if not all, of the economic burden of corporate income taxes is shouldered by primarily middle-class workers in the form of lower wages. It's wrong to call this a tax on the rich.

There are other instances in which Democrats balk at the notion of raising taxes or even, in Republican-like fashion, support tax cuts. In 2010, they heralded the passage of the Affordable Care Act. However, one key funding mechanism was a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices.

Many Democrats eventually joined Republicans in calling for this tax's repeal, citing the potential negative impact on the medical device industry. By 2015, even liberal stalwarts like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) were advocating to suspend the tax. It was permanently repealed in 2019 as part of a year-end spending package.

In 2011, Democrats, led by then-President Barack Obama, pushed for an extension of the payroll tax cut, a policy that provided relief to millions of working families. While this move aligned with their commitment to supporting the middle class, it marked another significant departure from their traditional stance on tax cuts, showing a willingness to embrace tax relief when politically expedient.

Soon, Congress must debate the sunset of the TCJA's tax relief provisions in 2025, which are scheduled to raise taxes by roughly $3 trillion over a 10-year period. It will be entertaining to watch Democrats extend a vast majority of these policies, including some for the benefit of very well-off Americans, while continuing to blame former President Donald Trump's tax cuts for raising the deficit.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: salt; tax; taxes
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1 posted on 11/02/2023 5:36:51 AM PDT by george76
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To: george76

Bkmk.


2 posted on 11/02/2023 5:38:00 AM PDT by sauropod (The obedient always think of themselves as virtuous rather than cowardly.)
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To: george76

They favor the slave owner. As it has been throughout history.


3 posted on 11/02/2023 5:41:25 AM PDT by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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To: george76

When will people learn, democrats lie, they ALL lie and everything the support is about selfish tyrannical desires.

Not to be naïve republicans lie, at least 90% of them and basically wear the republican skin and are actually democrats.

So yes, of course all their policies support themselves, and their rich friends.


4 posted on 11/02/2023 5:45:10 AM PDT by Skwor
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To: george76
'If Fascism Ever Comes to America, It Will Come in the Name of Liberalism'
Ronald Reagan
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ronald-reagan-fascism-liberalism/

5 posted on 11/02/2023 5:46:09 AM PDT by Savage Beast (TRUTH is a terrifying thing to behold when trapped in a web of delusion.)
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To: george76

Democrats only function is to enrich themselves and provide their deadbeat children a steady flow of income driven from the labor of others.

6 posted on 11/02/2023 5:53:55 AM PDT by RasterMaster ("Towering genius disdains a beaten path." - Abraham Lincoln)
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To: Openurmind

Yep. The party of chattel slavery is now the party of wage and givemedat slavery.


7 posted on 11/02/2023 5:59:00 AM PDT by MeanWestTexan (Sometimes There Is No Lesser Of Two Evils)
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To: george76

You can’t fight inequality. Being unequal is an irremediable fact.


8 posted on 11/02/2023 6:02:02 AM PDT by bert ( (KWE. NP. N.C. +12) Joe Biden is a kleptocrat)
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To: george76

The Marxist’s favorite term...inequality. What does that (even) mean? Even they don’t know but “equality” sounds so nice when you need votes to gain power....


9 posted on 11/02/2023 6:18:20 AM PDT by mikelets456
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To: mikelets456

The quest for curing inequality is in reality just Kissing Black Ass.

Pretending to remedy inequality is the best they can do.

Loss of just a few Black votes to Republicans or just staying home and or just pure Black voter laziness means the Democrat party is over.

Hispanics are being allowed to illegally cross the border in tens of thousands to solve the Black problem


10 posted on 11/02/2023 6:28:24 AM PDT by bert ( (KWE. NP. N.C. +12) Joe Biden is a kleptocrat)
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To: george76

“Democrats Say They’re Fighting Inequality. But Many of Their Policies Favor the Rich.”

Democrats are Fighting for equity

So what does equity mean?


11 posted on 11/02/2023 6:30:29 AM PDT by antidemoncrat
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To: antidemoncrat

——So what does equity mean?——

For an uneducable urban Black ner do well robbing Target and Walmart, it means I’m as good as you are. It means that the enslaved Ancestors of American blacks were the equals of those that sold them into slavery.

I’m your equal


12 posted on 11/02/2023 6:34:21 AM PDT by bert ( (KWE. NP. N.C. +12) Joe Biden is a kleptocrat)
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To: george76

Stupid Bitch!

13 posted on 11/02/2023 6:34:33 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: george76
I wonder how much impact the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions has really had on U.S. taxpayers. I suspect the SALT deductions became meaningless to many taxpayers because the standard deduction was increased dramatically. For 2023, a married couple has to have almost $28,000 worth of deductible expenses before it even makes sense for them to itemize their deductions.

So this means that primarily wealthy taxpayers are affected by the SALT cap, but at a certain income level those taxpayers lose all their itemized deductions and fall under the alternative minimum tax (AMT) brackets anyway.

14 posted on 11/02/2023 6:48:48 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (If something in government doesn’t make sense, you can be sure it makes dollars.)
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To: bert

So worldwide. equity must mean “Our kids, who have been taught and are experts on the use of proper pronouns and all the different genders, are just as capable of competing with your kids who are experts on STEM”.


15 posted on 11/02/2023 6:56:19 AM PDT by antidemoncrat
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To: MeanWestTexan

Funny thing is they are all falling for the “Equity” term and narrative. That is a new BS invention in definition for that word by the communist Webster’s . Until they deceptively changed it, it had a totally different meaning. The joke is on them, it actually means assets and holdings which would include slaves.

So when the Dem slave owners mention “equity” they are not talking about “equality” as they claim, they are actually using the term to label their ownership and equity in slave assets. And the slaves are swallowing the lie whole without question.


16 posted on 11/02/2023 7:13:39 AM PDT by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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To: antidemoncrat

“So worldwide. equity must mean “Our kids, who have been taught and are experts on the use of proper pronouns and all the different genders, are just as capable of competing with your kids who are experts on STEM”.”

Equity means positive assets and holdings such as homes and even slaves. So it is appropriate, they are making slaves.


17 posted on 11/02/2023 7:17:27 AM PDT by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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To: george76

Anything the democrats say 180 it and you’ll be closer to the facts they have a long history of it.


18 posted on 11/02/2023 7:48:13 AM PDT by Vaduz (....)
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To: george76

Sure they are. They well know where they donations come from.

How often do they fly into Southern California on private jets to attend $50,000/plate dinner parties in Beverly Hills or Brentwood.


19 posted on 11/02/2023 7:49:05 AM PDT by Bon of Babble (You Say You Want a Revolution?)
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To: george76

bttt


20 posted on 11/02/2023 7:57:05 AM PDT by Pajamajan (Pray for our nation. Never be slave in a new Socialist America )
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