President Biden has proposed more than $4 trillion in new spending between his infrastructure plan and his "American Families Plan," so it's no surprise he's pushing for massive tax hikes to pay for those plans. For starters, the president wants to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%. "He's going to take the taxes on American businesses---the corporate income tax---higher than the taxes in China, higher than the taxes in Europe," says Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. "We're going to go back to the Obama days when jobs left America because we had a high corporate income tax."
Biden's plan doesn't stop there. He also wants to raise the capitol gains tax rate for millionaires from 20% to 39.6%. "He wants to double the capitol gains tax, bringing it to higher than Jimmy Carter's level in the 70s, when we had double digit inflation and falling wages," says Norquist. "We have tried these things before, and they've failed before."
The White House insists Biden's plans will only impact the ultra-rich. Norquist says that is not true, especially in the case of the capitol gains tax hike. "This is a direct assault on the life savings of at least half of American families," he tells KTRH. "It will reduce the value of what you've saved for the future."
Norquist isn't the only economic expert criticizing Biden's tax plans. A recent survey found 98% of CEOs said raising the corporate tax rate would hurt their company, while former Trump administration economic official Larry Kudlow called Biden's plans a "wet blanket" for the economy.
On top of the corporate and capital gains tax hikes, Biden also wants to increase the IRS budget by $80 billion to hire more agents and go after "wealthy tax evaders."
"This series of cascading tax increases is a declaration of war on small businesses, and on people who are looking for work," says Norquist.