Grover Norquist has seen the coming onslaught of Democratic taxes and regulations before. And despite the likely hit it will have on the economy, personal incomes, and 401(k) retirement portfolios, he sees a potential upside that could stall or reverse the effects.
“Joe Biden is doing exactly what [Bill] Clinton did to lose the House and Senate and exactly what Obama did to lose the House,” said the president of Americans for Tax Reform. “Massive tax hikes, massive spending, and then poking on the other issues,” he explained.
And, he said, while former President Donald Trump also suffered midterm election defeats, any losses in the 2022 midterm elections will be because of the public’s rejection of liberal policies, not presidential tweets and nonstop investigations.
“When Trump’s not on the ticket, the suburbs are going to be reacting not to something Trump said, but to their 401(k)s shrinking. And that’s when they lose the suburbs. Democrats have nothing that they propose that will make your 401(k) larger. Every idea that Democrats have, taxes, spending, make energy more expensive, give the unions everything they want, let the trial lawyers sue everybody — everything they do will make your 401(k), your life savings, smaller,” he said.
Norquist isn’t alone. The Tax Foundation this week also warned that Biden’s plan to end the 2017 Trump tax cuts will jump corporate costs and whack the middle class. “President Biden’s proposed tax hike would reduce American economic output during a time when we need to maximize economic growth to reach our country’s pre-pandemic growth trend and return to full employment,” said the group.
President Biden and congressional policymakers have proposed several changes to the corporate income tax, including raising the rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and imposing a 15 percent minimum tax on the book income of large corporations. https://t.co/RayK8B1enO
— Tax Foundation (@TaxFoundation) February 27, 2021
In an interview at his downtown Washington office, Norquist mocked Biden’s campaign promise not to raise taxes for people earning $400,000 or less.
“He has no intention of keeping it because he also says he’s going to repeal the entire Trump tax cut, which for a median-income family of four that earned $73,000 a year, that’s a $2,000 tax increase,” he said.
“The [$400,000] challenge for him is a lie. He lied his way into the presidency. This was the thing he said most often. This was the promise that he made again and again and again. And it will be a lie,” said Norquist, among the most influential tax and spending advisers in GOP politics.
But it doesn’t end there. Poring over Biden’s plans, he said that the new administration has plans for a gas tax that could cost a gallon 40 cents more, a carbon tax, and gun taxes.
Also, in reversing policies put in place by Trump to lower corporate taxes and expand energy drilling and pipeline construction, hundreds of thousands of jobs could disappear or flee overseas, he said.
Carbon Tax is Toxic at the Ballot Box: A Timelinehttps://t.co/naYemMYcZC
— ATR (@taxreformer) November 15, 2018
Democrats argue that Biden has no choice but to expand spending in a down economy, first with the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, then with massive infrastructure and healthcare spending.
“What would they have me cut?” the president famously asked this month when pressed to trim spending.
Norquist said that pushing spending to new heights isn’t the solution. “They’re selling the same horse, again and again,” offering as an example Democratic spending increases on public education. “The quality has gone down. Spending more money has not gotten us better-educated children.”
Until the midterm elections, beating back new spending and taxes by the Democrats who control Washington will be an uphill battle.
“I think we’ll be able to stop some of the tax increases that Biden wants,” said Norquist, citing potential help from Democrats who are fiscal centrists, such as West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin.
But, he added, it can be dangerous to “stand between the Democrats and all that spending.”
