The Cost is Zero for This $3.5 Trillion Bill

The View from the Middle

 

How stupid do they think we are?  Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden have all had the audacity to tell us that, “this $3.5 Trillion bill will have a cost of zero”, even though the cost is embedded in their statement.  If there really is no cost, why are they saying that they have to raise taxes to “pay” for it?

Then, they suggest that this bill is popular with the people, but in reality “the people” don’t have any idea what is actually in this bill.  In fact, even Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden haven’t read this bill and clearly don’t know what’s in it.  But they want to “pass it so they can find out what’s in it”.  Ever heard that before?  The facts are clear. What “people” like is getting money sent to them.  If “the people” knew about all of the things that are hidden in this bill and the consequences of those things, they would detest it.  This bill, for example, will undoubtedly create more debt for our children and produce inflation, the hidden tax, that will crush our buying power.  Nancy, Chuck and Joe are also simply lying about how they will pay it.

Just to add a little more absurdity to the sales pitch for this bill, Jen Psaki is telling the country that it would be “absurd and unfair” for companies in America to pass the tax increases planned to pay for this bill on to consumers.  What world is Jen Psaki living in?  Does she really expect big companies, like Procter & Gamble where I spent my career, to eat a 5.5% increase in costs?  Jen, please be truthful with the American people.  Big companies have a responsibility to their shareholders to find ways to maintain their profitability and they will do so in this case by increasing prices or reducing costs, like labor.  Both of these adjustments will be bad for the American people.  And that is “if” these companies actually end up paying these increased taxes.  I think they will figure out how to avoid these taxes which is even worse for the rest of us.

“Tax the rich” and big companies!  It’s a great slogan, but it’s a lie.  We all keep hearing that 55 of the country’s largest companies paid no taxes last year, and I don’t doubt that fact at all.  But, do you know why those 55 companies didn’t pay any taxes?  Because it is legal for them not to.  These companies are simply taking advantage of loopholes that Congress has built into the tax code at the request of these same companies.  Big corporations and rich individuals give money to Congress men and women to influence them.  Do you know why Warren Buffet pays a lower tax “rate” than his secretary?  Because it’s legal!  Buffet is not breaking any laws.  He is just taking advantage of all of the loopholes that he and the ultra-rich have had built into our tax code by the Congress people they influenced with their generous campaign contributions and personal payoffs.  The rich and big companies have the money to bribe our politicians and to pay for lobbyists and lawyers to avoid any new taxes in this bill.  This is not a projection of what is to come.  It is a fact that has been proven over and over again throughout our history.  

So, if the rich won’t pay these taxes, how about the poor.  The poor literally have no money to tax, or at least very little, so they will not pay for this massive expansion of government intrusion into our lives.  They will, of course, pay increased taxes on gasoline and cigarettes and will pay a huge price as inflation strips away their buying power. However, they will not pay any of the federal income taxes designed to pay for this bill – which, of course, has no cost.  So, if the rich have money and influence to avoid the tax increases in this bill (that has no cost), and the poor have no money to pay for this bill, that has no cost, who is going to pay the cost of this bill, that has no cost.

It is the middle class who will pay the bulk of any tax increases the government will pass as a part of this $3.5 Trillion bill.  The middle class does have some money, but not enough to hire lobbyists and lawyers to create loopholes for them in the tax laws.  However, the government, or in this case the Dems, cannot get all of the $3.5 Trillion from the middle class.  That would be too devastating and too noticeable.  Our government will be lucky to get a third of that amount from the middle class in taxes and will have to borrow the rest and pass that debt on to our kids and grandkids.

Thomas Jefferson, a stone-cold genius and possibly our smartest President (it’s between him and John Quincy Adams) warned of the dangers of Congressional bills that were too long.  And that was when their bills were typically three or four pages in length.  President Lincoln’s entire platform, for example, was only two pages long.  Jefferson suggested that bills that were too long would be confusing, over-reaching, deceptive, unmanageable and would deliver too many unintended consequences.  This bill is almost 2,500 pages long and contains close to a half million words.  I’m going to take a wild guess that this brilliant Founding Father would object to this bill.  I’ve attached a link to the text of this bill for two reasons.  First, you will undoubtedly get a good laugh as you try to read and understand it.  Second, it will help you appreciate the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson and the depths to which our modern-day politicians have devolved and the chaos, duplicity, ineptitude and division they have created.

 

https://docs.house.gov/meetings/BU/BU00/20210925/114090/BILLS-117pih-BuildBackBetterAct.pdf

 

And before any of you try to excuse any of the Democrats’ excessive spending on the grounds that the Republicans have done it also.  Save your breath.  I condemn all of this “drunken sailor” spending and would even support a balance budget amendment with provisions built in to handle emergencies like wars, economic collapses and maybe even pandemics.  However, our deficit in 2021 is projected to reach $3.7 trillion just for this year alone.  This will exceed last year’s deficit, when we were actually in the middle of the pandemic, by almost 20% and will be the largest in American history.  And this, of course, does not include any of this $3.5 trillion in spending.  With that spending included, by 2026 our total national debt will be fast approaching $40 trillion.  Heaven help us all if interest rates normalize to anywhere near 5%.  Both parties have sinned, but in the contest of “drunken sailor” spending, the Dems and Joe Biden are winning.