Jobless claims just rose to their highest level since last November. If the economy continues to shrink, as it did in the first two quarters of 2022, unemployment is likely to rise. And there’s definitely no help on the way from Washington.
Finally, the slimmed-down “Build Back Better” bill that Democrats are passing this week will raise taxes for Americans amid the recession.
Yes, worse than the ridiculous misnaming, since the “Inflation Reduction Act” does nothing to reduce inflation, are the hundreds of billions in new taxes that will hit Americans, including:
- A corporate income tax rate of at least 15% that aims to raise $313 billion, costs that are sure to be passed on to customers and workers through higher prices and lower wages.
- A $6.5 billion tax on energy companies, which will also be passed on to consumers, and a $12 billion levy on imported oil, which will push up gas prices at the pump even further.
- A $124 billion stock buyback tax that will disrupt many Americans’ retirement plans.
- $200 billion in new tax revenue from increased IRS audits.
The tax hikes will be bad enough for individuals, but if they deepen the recession – as tax hikes usually do – the whole nation could be in trouble: why discourage investment and fuel unemployment when the economy is contracting?
Because the draft law contains items on the wish list of the Dem.
This follows Dems’ similarly irrelevant passage of the American Rescue Plan Act early last year – ostensibly to “save” an economy already booming post-COVID, but really only to shell out $1.9 trillion on Dem goodies . Worse, they endured warnings that doing so would fuel the very inflation the nation is now suffering from.
So the Democrats gave us rising prices with a bill that purported to start the economy, and now they’re beating the economy with another bill that purports to fight inflation (and, as Biden put it, “God knows what else”). Watch out for the upcoming Life Extension and Universal Prosperity Act.
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