White House Press Secretary Jennifer Psaki shocked the internet when she drastically shifted the talking points on President Joe Biden’s major tax hike plans. Fox Business wasn’t having it.
Psaki clarified during a press briefing Wednesday that “families” with household incomes totaling over $400,000 will see their taxes increase. The statement appeared to directly contradict Biden’s indication that individuals — not families — would see taxes increased during an interview with ABC News that aired the same day: “Yes, anybody making more than $400,000 will see a small to a significant tax increase … If you make less than $400,000, you won’t see one single penny in additional federal tax.” Fox Business financial correspondent Jackie DeAngelis had one word for the Biden administration’s political doublespeak: “hypocrisy.”
Forbes Media Chairman Steve Forbes agreed with DeAngelis and said that the tax hike on “families” was the “first of the many taxes to come when they do that next reconciliation bill where they’re going to have massive tax increases.” Forbes said the tax hikes would include the “very destructive capital gains tax.” In addition, Forbes warned about Democrats trying “to ease the restrictions on state and local tax deductions. So, they’ll raise the rates more, but allow more deductions. [It’s] another way of bailing out people who are living in the [badly managed] blue states.”
Forbes lambasted the leftist tax agenda: “Big tax increases, convoluting the code and hurting economic growth. All this happy talk about ‘great economy ahead,’ I take it with a grain of salt.”
DeAngelis turned to Strategic Wealth Partners CEO Mark Tepper: “Mark, you did talk about the capital gains tax and how that could impact the markets as well.” She continued: “[Raising taxes on families] would certainly impact the markets because it would come down to families, households — have less money to spend, they have less money to put into the economy, um, and they’re going to have to sort of really pull and shore up those budgets. That impacts people.”
Tepper noted that Biden’s plans “[will] hurt the consumer. And the consumer’s roughly 70 percent of our economy. So, this is not a good thing. He’s doing this at the absolute worst possible time on top of that.” Tepper continued: “Biden ran his campaign on raising taxes, and he’s always had several plans along the way. He was just never willing to provide any detail on any of these plans. Zero transparency out of this administration. Now all of a sudden the truth comes out: $200,000 for individuals, $400,000 for families.”
DeAngelis later rebuked Biden’s gargantuan $1.9 trillion stimulus package in conjunction with his plans for tax hikes as a “tax and spend policy.” Forbes agreed and tore apart the logic behind the unicorn economics of the left:
It’s tax and spend. And taxes are a burden on the economy in terms of taking resources away from people. And uh, this is why all this happy talk — we’re setting the stage Jackie for stagflation like the 1970s with this massive printing of money that’s going to come with these spending bills. Plus, these higher taxes. That’s going to give us stagnation and inflation. Not a good combination, but the Democrats seem oblivious to it.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact ABC News (818-460-7477), CBS News (212-975-3247) and NBC News (212- 664-6192) and demand they hold the Biden administration accountable for shifting the narrative on its tax hike plans.
