The Cost Of The Biden Economic Policies

Issues & Insights posted an article today detailing some of the impact of Joe Biden’s economic proposals should he become President.

Some of the highlights of the article:

A recent study by a group of highly regarded economists at the Hoover Institution, including two former members of the Council of Economic Advisers, found that the full panoply of Biden’s policy proposals — Medicare for All, big tax hikes on the wealthy and the working poor, the massively expensive Green New Deal, and thousands of impending regulations — would have devastating consequences for the U.S. economy.

…According to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Biden’s projected tax increases total $4.3 trillion over the next decade, and that’s a conservative estimate. Trump, meanwhile, would cut taxes by about $1.7 trillion. The quick math: That’s a $6 trillion difference.

“We estimate that the full Biden agenda will reduce long-run real GDP per capita by more than 8% as a result of reducing full-time equivalent employment (FTEs) per person by 3%, the capital stock per person by 15% and total factor productivity by 2%,” the Hoover Institution study said.

Based on current growth estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, “this suggests there will be 4.9 million fewer employed individuals, $2.6 trillion less GDP, and $1.5 trillion less consumption in that year alone. Median household income in 2030 would be $6,500 less.”

…Right now the minimum is $7.25 an hour. By more than doubling it, some 2 million jobs would be lost, EPI estimates. Many of those losing out will be low-skilled workers with little education, including many Hispanics and African-Americans.

Hardest hit of all, however, will be struggling female workers.

“Not only are 59% of minimum-wage jobs held by women and slated to be affected by these wage increases, this means that 1.2 million jobs held by women will be lost by 2027 due to this policy, accounting for 61% of total losses,” the report said.

Just as bad, as noted above, the minimum wage hike will hit struggling small businesses, the nation’s main employers.

“Increasing labor costs through a federal $15 minimum wage would only bring businesses — and the people they employ — closer to the point of no return,” EPI managing director Michael Saltsman said in an interview with the Washington Free Beacon.

The article also notes:

Finally, there’s the proposed 2% wealth tax on the truly rich, an idea proposed by Massachusetts socialist Sen. Elizabeth Warren and part of the Biden campaign’s tax conversation. It would tax the wealth, not the income, of those who have $50 million or more in household wealth at 2%. For those over $1 billion, it goes up to 6%.

If this makes you all warm and fuzzy, as it does the increasingly far-left Democrats, you might want to rethink that. A recent study by the Center for Freedom & Prosperity, a respected free-market think tank, estimated the following results of such envy taxes:

    • “Long-run GDP decline of roughly 2.7% (relative to a steady state with no wealth tax) due to a decline in the capital stock of roughly 3.7%;
    • “An immediate loss in hours worked of 1.1%, equating to approximately 1.8 million jobs, and a long-run loss in hours worked of 1.5%;
    • “Initial decline in average annual household real wage income of about $2,500;
    • “Explosive welfare state growth as transfers relative to GDP (excluding SS) increase by 70.1%;
    • “Per-household wealth held by the top 0.25% falls by $3.7 million, and from lower-middle to upper-middle households, declines in lifetime wealth range from $440 to $49,660.”

That’s not sweet revenge on the rich – it’s foolish, self-defeating envy, the engine that keeps socialism running.

A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for the end of the Middle Class–a major feature of socialistic societies. The recent history of Venezuela is a powerful example of how a country can go from a wealthy, successful country to a place where people are eating their pets in a very short time.