The new spending bill being promoted by Joe Biden and congressional Democrats, the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022,” would see taxes go up for most Americans, contrary to what Biden has repeatedly said in defense of the bill.
As reported by Just The News, an analysis by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation confirmed that almost all Americans would see their taxes go up by 2023 if the bill was passed; this would affect everyone from the wealthiest to low-income Americans making less than $10,000.
For taxpayers earning between $50,000 and $75,000, federal taxes will increase by up to $1.9 billion; for those making between $100,000 and $200,000, federal taxes will go up by $10.8 billion. If passed, the new bill would see overall average tax rates increase from 20.3% to 20.6% in 2023.
The bill’s summary, however, claims that “there are no new taxes on families making $400,000 or less and no new taxes on small businesses,” and that “we are closing tax loopholes and enforcing the tax code.”
Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), whose support is crucial to the bill’s passage, has similarly claimed that the bill will not raise taxes.
“Over the last year,” Manchin said, “leaders in Washington have ignored repeated warnings about the severe threat of inflation and the consequences of unprecedented domestic spending. Despite these concerns and my calls to give the country time to fully realize the impacts of such historic levels of spending and our inflation crisis, many Democrats have continued to push for trillions more in spending to meet a political deadline.”
But contrary to what Democrats have said, others have voiced their opposition to the bill, warning that taxes will go up if it is signed into law.
The new bill is “a tax increase on nearly every American,” says the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. “Raise the corporate tax rate, and you’re cutting wages and salaries for workers.”
“Rather than reduce inflation, it puts inflation on steroids,” said a group of Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee. The bill would implement a “socialist drug price setting scheme [that] will likely cause drug prices to increase for patients for the next few years, all while killing future cures from ever coming to market.”
In addition to raising taxes, the bill also includes funding for the IRS to hire up to 87,000 new agents, which has only raised further concerns about an increased role that taxation and the IRS will play in most Americans’ lives if the bill is passed.