Opinion | Biden’s Public Option Would Mean Massive Tax Hikes

By Lanhee J. Chen and Daniel L. Heil Oct. 19, 2020 6:59 pm ET Joe Biden has promised that no families with incomes under $400,000 will see tax increases if he is elected president. But that’s a promise he won’t be able to keep if he gets his way and Congress creates a government-run health insurance plan—a public option.

If Congress follows its past behavior, the result will be a costly public option. With our co-author Tom Church, we estimate that a politically realistic public option would increase 10-year federal deficits by almost $800 billion. Over the long term, it would become the third-largest government program—accounting for one-eighth of future spending excluding interest on the debt.

Avoiding these dire projections will force future policy makers to choose between spending cuts and tax increases. The math is grim. Even without any new spending programs, we estimate that Congress would need an across-the-board tax increase of 10.4% beginning in 2026 to return long-term debt projections to CBO’s 2019 forecast.

Instead, lawmakers might consider raising personal income taxes for all taxpayers. An across-the-board tax hike would increase all personal income-tax rates more than 30% by 2050. Middle-income families would see their taxes rise by $2,000 a year in inflation-adjusted dollars. Middle-income taxpayers would pay a marginal federal income tax rate of 32.6%, and the top rate would need to be above 50%—levels not seen since 1981.

opinion Remember when Obama promised open debates live on CSPAN over the ACA? And then went behind closed doors and locked out all Republicans? And look how much that has cost. Yes, more people covered, but the rest of us are paying much more for less coverage since then.

opinion All this Govt will do is raise more lazy citizens with more Govt reliefs and the working will be taxed more. But, this is the lesser evil compared to the racial divide Trump is fostering

opinion and you know crooked joe will get his cut of those taxes...scum

opinion Sure, unless you make the wealthy pay for it (an option that WSJ refuses to entertain).

opinion Conjecture... But tell us Wall Street, how is America supposed to pay for the National Debt?

opinion opinion Chen and Heil, the most recent presidents with the greatest deficit increases were Reagan, GW Bush, GHW Bush, and trump. It takes a democrat to clean up the fiscal mess Republicans bury the middle class with. Carter and Clinton had the smallest deficits. Do research

opinion Ultimately the rich will get the money back again but not until it boosts the economy big time. You are too selfish to see this .

opinion Are you serious? This country has so much public debt the self-serving bureaucrats could take every penny from everyone and still not see daylight. The WSJ is no different than these govt ticks who have destroyed the world's greatest economy: you're not be honest with Americans.

opinion So true. Anyone who has money or makes money will bear the burden.

opinion The middle class will always pay when you raise taxes. Who do you think are the ones making 400k, your Boss! When they raise his taxes he just go and lay some middle class people off.

opinion Any Canadian friend I have gladly pays more taxes to know they are assured HC and don’t have to worry about bankruptcy.

opinion Why do we have such a large government? Why do we want to pay more for their poor performance? Income tax, property tax, taxes on interstate, sales taxes, registration fee, license fees.... add up what you really pay in taxes and gov fees, it will shock you.

opinion The middle class is not very bright they don't care that they are on the hook for $27 trillion the spendthrifts they elect placed squarely on their shoulders. Seems the yoke around their neck is never too heavy for them. They remind me of oxen.

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

AP FACT CHECK: Trump's falsehoods on virus, taxes and BidensBack fully campaigning after COVID-19 sidelined him, President Donald Trump returned to familiar form, spreading a litany of falsehoods. Over the weekend, he asserted yet again the virus was “rounding the corner” when it isn&39;t, misrepresented Democratic rival Joe Biden&39;s tax proposals and resurrected
Source: YahooNews - 🏆 380. / 59 Read more »

Trump ups pressure on Barr to probe Bidens as election nearsPresident Trump is calling on Attorney General William Barr to launch an investigation into unverified claims about Democrat Joe Biden and his son Hunter, effectively demanding that the Justice Department abandon its historic resistance to getting involved in elections. Hood day? Is he really an attorney? Trump is a crook. What a disgrace. Really. Man, they’ve got big heads
Source: latimes - 🏆 11. / 82 Read more »

Trump Is Practically Begging Barr to Dig Up Dirt on the BidensJust as he publicly called on Russia in 2016 to find Hillary Clinton’s emails, the president essentially gave his attorney general marching orders on Fox News to “act fast” in probing his 2020 challenger.
Source: VanityFair - 🏆 391. / 55 Read more »

Trump calls on Barr to appoint special prosecutor to investigate Bidens before Election Day“We&39;ve got to get the attorney general to act,” the president said in a telephone interview with “Fox & Friends.” “He&39;s got to act. And he’s got to act fast.”
Source: YahooNews - 🏆 380. / 59 Read more »

No Reporter at the NY Post Wanted to Smear the Bidens With Russian Disinfo Except a Woman Who Grammed a Photo With Roger StoneLast week’s New York Post story on Joe Biden and his son Hunter, pushed by Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani, had all the marks of a Russian disinfo campaign meant to engender some sort of October surprise for Donald Trump’s campaign, so much that it might as well have been postmarked from the Kremlin and signed “From Vladimir, with love.” That it’s largely fallen flat, aside from its embrace by MAGA idiots, is partly a sign of how obvious the motivations behind the story are—supposedly incriminating emails revealed in October, where have we seen that before!—as well as a sign of how clear it’s been for months that Giuliani has been eagerly pushing claims against the Bidens stemming from Russian agents.
Source: Jezebel - 🏆 153. / 63 Read more »

Opinion | The Hidden Trap in Biden’s Tax HikeFrom WSJopinion: Joe Biden promises not to raise taxes on Americans earning more than $400,000—but there’s a hitch, writes biggsag opinion biggsag smerconish
Source: WSJ - 🏆 98. / 63 Read more »