During his MLK Day address, President Biden laid into House Republicans for their plan to pass a bill imposing a national sales tax.
Video of President Biden:
Biden said:
They’re preparing to vote on a third bill, they want a national sales tax.
Let me say this again, I know if I said that you would say what is Biden making up here. They want to raise the tax on the middle class by taxing thousands of items, cutting taxes for the wealthiest because they want to supplant the money lost from taxes on the millionaires and billionaires with a sales tax on virtually everything in the country. What in god’s name is that all about other than what is obvious?
They want working-class folks to be paying another 10%, 20% in their taxes depending on where they live and how they spend the money and they’re going to — and reduce taxes for the super-wealthy. Now, if we didn’t see it, you would think we’re making this stuff up. If I told you in 2023 a party was going to run on a national sales tax, that’s how they’re starting their new term. Cutting taxes for billionaires — by the way, the number of billionaires went up during the recession. Up. They didn’t go down. They went up. Raising taxes on working families, making inflation worse. Let me be clear, if any of these bills happen to reach my desk, I will veto them.
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The so-called fiscally conservative Republican Party is about to pass a bill in the House next week that will be perhaps the biggest tax increase on the American people in US history.
Replacing the IRS with a national sales tax would be a gift to people who are already wealthy and a crippling economic penalty on everyone else. Sales taxes are highly regressive because while each person pays the same percentage of tax, the tax takes a larger percentage of the income of those who make the least money.
A national sales tax would shift the tax burden to the middle and lower wage earners in the economy.
It is a terrible idea, and also a giant political club that House Republicans voluntarily handed President Biden and Democrats to beat them with for the next two years.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
