Staff Reports
President Joe Biden’s recent debate performance could only be described as a masterclass in incoherence. From stammering sentences to bewildering brags, Biden managed to derail any substantial news about former President Trump’s legal troubles or the 2024 Republican nominee’s past. Instead, headlines zeroed in on the glaring senility of our current commander in chief, making Biden’s mental decline the hot topic across the nation.
The charade put up by Biden’s handlers to shield his public appearances only from dawn to dusk is now falling apart, revealing a president in freefall. The Democratic Party is in panic mode, allies abroad are worried, and Americans are outraged to find out their president is MIA. With Biden stumbling through the debate, people have hardly noticed the disastrous substance of his answers.
Biden’s meltdown started when he bungled a response about his fiscal policies by bizarrely boasting about beating Medicare. It’s worth stepping back and examining just how dire his tax and spending plans are when he does manage to articulate them. The Democrats’ core fantasy—as Biden showcased—is the notion that exorbitant promises can be fulfilled without any real cost.
"Given the successful distraction of Biden’s catastrophic 'style' in stumbling through the debate, much less attention has been paid to the dismal substance of his answers."
–@TianaTheFirst https://t.co/pdLJWHPjoo— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) July 5, 2024
Biden hurled attacks at Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act while simultaneously vowing to keep tax cuts for households earning under $400,000. He rambled on the debate stage about the supposedly low tax rates paid by billionaires, a twist of reality so extreme it’s laughable. He suggested that merely raising taxes on the wealthy could magically solve the nation’s debt problems, an illusion bursting with factual errors.
The mythical 8% tax rate Biden insists on includes unrealized gains like retirement plans and stocks that haven’t been sold. In reality, the top 1% earners already pay an effective tax rate of 31.5%, as even Biden’s Treasury admits. Contrastingly, lower earners often pay a negative tax rate thanks to various credits and deductions. Biden’s scheme to soak the rich wouldn’t come close to solving the fiscal mess Democrats have created.
Forbes data show that the combined wealth of all U.S. billionaires amounts to around $5.5 trillion, a figure that includes unrealized gains. Liquidating their assets wholesale would barely cover two years of our ballooning $2 trillion deficits, let alone fund Biden’s promised expansions in social programs. Biden’s tax plan would, contrary to his claims, indeed hit middle-income households and betray the very people he purports to protect.
At the end of the day, the real problem isn’t about having a fair tax system but about runaway spending. Even with Trump’s tax cuts in place, individual and corporate tax revenue is performing well by historical standards. The calamity lies in the federal budget, which has swelled far beyond the historical average percentage of GDP. Last year alone saw federal spending consume nearly a quarter of our economic output, with sharp rises in interest payments on the national debt.
Biden’s feigned indignation at Trump’s tax cuts serves as a convenient diversion from the truth: Democrats are hooked on unchecked spending sprees, unwilling to face fiscal reality. The blame game might rally the left, but Americans aren’t buying it anymore.
