Eric Hovde Needs a History Lesson in "Grand Compromises"
When Eric Hovde claims that he “pledges” to support reducing tax rates, he is really hoping that voters ignore prior statements where he has promised otherwise. Hovde has told Wisconsin voters that he would accept a tax hike deal with Democrats as part of a grand compromise.
According to Politifact, Hovde “has told voters that he would accept a budget-balancing deal that gets $10 in spending cuts for every $1 in new revenue.”
Hovde’s admission leaves voters wondering if he understands the basic premise of a budget “compromise.” Perhaps Eric Hovde is not aware that budget compromises between Republicans and Democrats do not work. He should examine the 1982 and 1990 budget “compromises.”
In 1982, President Reagan was promised three dollars in spending cuts for every one dollar in tax increases. Whether Hovde remembers this or not, Congressional Democrats never delivered on their promise to cut spending.
In 1990, President George H. W. Bush was promised two dollars in spending cuts for ever one dollar in tax increases. He fell for the bait and violated his Pledge to not raise taxes. After a $137 billion tax hike, spending actually rose by $22 billion.
If the 2011 debt-ceiling deal taught us anything it is that when Republicans hold the line on taxes, spending cuts occur. John Boehner understood this and it is a shame that Eric Hovde does not.
“Eric Hovde’s willingness to negotiate with Democrats like Harry Reid on tax hike ‘compromises’ further proves that he is not the conservative leader he claims to be,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. “If thirty years of so-called ‘compromises’ have taught American taxpayers anything it is that at the end of the day, they are stuck paying more taxes with no realized spending cuts. It is a shame Eric Hovde is leaving tax hikes on the table.”
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Americans Oppose Taxing Unrealized Gains by an Overwhelming 3-to-1 Margin
ProPublica hardest hit
Across all demographic groups, Americans strongly oppose taxing unrealized gains, according to a survey experiment with 5,000 respondents published in May 2021.
The paper, The Psychology of Taxing Capital Income: Evidence from a Survey Experiment on the Realization Rule, is authored by Professor Zachary D. Liscow of Yale University Law School and Edward G. Fox of the University of Michigan Law School.
The researchers found:
"Respondents strongly prefer to wait to tax gains on publicly-traded stocks until sale versus taxing unsold gains each year: 75% to 25%. Though this opposition is strongest among those who are wealthier or own stocks, all demographic groups oppose taxing unsold gains by large margins. This opposition persists and is often strengthened when looking across a variety of other assets and policy framings."
The realization rule requires that property must be sold before gains are taxed. By a margin of 75 to 25, people preferred this rule.
The study also noted popular revolts against the property tax as evidence of the aversion to taxing unsold gains.
They asked participants about how a property tax should handle appreciated assets, noting that:
“In this context, respondents are again hesitant to fully tax gains on assets that have not been sold.”
Survey-takers’ massive rejection of abandoning the realization rule held up even after they heard arguments in favor of this kind of taxation, when they themselves don’t own stock, and even if they’re Democrats.
A primary reason for this is because people use “mental accounting” heuristics, under which they react differently to unsold gains than other ways of getting richer, like wages:
"... These behaviors are often thought to result from people using heuristics that put stocks in different “mental accounts” than money in the bank or wages. Using these heuristics, most people treat stock investments as an “open” mental account until sale and do not fully internalize paper gains or losses."
After all, taxes paid on these assets would have to come from other sources of income, not the asset itself.
The study explains this sentiment further:
"There is significant concern that unsold gains are not yet real in a sense. As shown in Table 4, the word most distinctively associated with opponents is “actual”—as in, taxpayers have not “actually” received income “yet.” Likewise, they note that the stock has not yet yielded “cash,” or anything in the taxpayer’s “hand.”"
Abandoning the realization rule is so unpopular that, even when told that this hypothetical tax would only impact those with over $10 million in wealth, the preference for taxing unsold stock gains only moderately increased by 9 percentage points to 34 percent.
Many on the left including the progressive group ProPublica are suggesting that unrealized gains should be taxed annually.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) plans to introduce a bill to tax unsold gains on assets for the rich, in an initiative he calls, “Treat Wealth like Wages.” Another example of this would be the wealth tax, a proposal several Democrats, like Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have proposed.
But as shown by the study, taxing unrealized gains cuts deeply against Americans’ sense of fairness and common sense.
Photo Credit: Stock Catalog
Wyoming Residents Will Get Stuck with Even Higher Utility Bills Due to Biden Corporate Tax Rate Hike
If Biden and the Democrats enact a corporate income tax rate increase, they will have to explain why they just increased your utility bills
If President Biden and congressional Democrats hike the corporate income tax rate, Wyoming households and businesses will get stuck with even higher utility bills.
Democrats plan to impose a corporate income tax rate increase to 28%, even higher than communist China's 25%. This does not even include state corporate income taxes, which average 4 - 5% nationwide.
Customers bear the cost of corporate income taxes imposed on utility companies. Corporate income tax cuts drive utility rates down, corporate income tax hikes drive utility rates up.
Electric, gas, and water companies must get their billing rates approved by the respective state utility commissions. When the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act cut the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%, utility companies worked with officials to pass along the tax savings to customers, including at least four Wyoming utilities. The savings take the form of either a rate reduction, or, a reduction to an existing/planned rate increase.
Working with the Wyoming Public Service Commission, Black Hills Energy, Black Hills Wyoming Gas, LLC, Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. and Rocky Mountain Power passed along tax savings to their customers.
Black Hills Energy: As noted in this September 23, 2019 ShortGO article:
Black Hills Energy’s Cheyenne electric utility customers are seeing benefits of the federal corporate tax rate reduction from 35 percent to 21 percent on September bills. The Wyoming Public Service Commission (WPSC) approved a proposal to return the tax savings stemming from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts for 2018 and 2019 in the form of a one-time bill credit to customers on their September bills.
The residential customer credit is $83.62, the commercial customer credit is $147.37, the Secondary General customer credit is $3,586.24, and the Primary General Service customer credit is $32,810.64. Customers will see slightly different amounts on their bill based on the refund impacts on taxes and fees included on the bill.
Black Hills Wyoming Gas, LLC: As noted in this March 10, 2020 Black Hills Wyoming Gas document:
The TCJA Amortization Credit refunds the net Non-Protected excess deferred income tax items owed to customers resulting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. These tax items include the Non-Protected Property Rate Base amounts owed to customers, the Non-Protected Non-Property Rate Base amounts owed by customers, and the Non-Refunded ARAM from 2018 and 2019 owed to customers. The total amount to be returned to customers through the TCJA Amortization Credit is $1,672,740 as approved by the Commission in Docket No. 30026-2-GR-19.
Montana-Dakota Utilities Co.: As noted in this Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. document:
Wyoming customers of Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. (Montana-Dakota) who were billed for electric service during the months of January 2018 through April 2019 will see a one-time bill credit on their electric service bill issued between July 25, 2019 and August 26, 2019. This refund is associated with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 passed into law in late December 2017.
On June 13, 2018, Montana-Dakota filed an application with the Wyoming Public Service Commission (Commission) to update the Company’s electric rates in response to the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and the Commission’s Order Requiring Montana-Dakota to File its Tax Assessment Plan and Create a Deferred Regulatory Liability Account issued on December 29, 2017. On April 8, 2019, the Commission authorized an overall decrease in the Company’s electric service rates to be effective May 1, 2019 and a Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Refund for customers who were billed for electric service January 2018 through April 2019 to be applied to customers’ accounts no later than August 1, 2019. The bill credit includes interest at the Commission approved interest rate. New Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Refund for Wyoming Customers for January 2018 through April 2019 Electric Service Electric service rates were implemented May 1, 2019.
The electric rate refund plan approved by the Commission provides for the refunding of $1,614,096 to Wyoming electric service customers through a one-time bill credit on their electric bill to be applied by August 1, 2019. Each customer’s refund is based on their January 2018 through April 2019 consumption.
The bill credit is shown as a separate line item in the Account Summary section of your bill and will be identified as “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Refund”.
Rocky Mountain Power: As noted in this April 17, 2019 Wyoming Public Service Commission document:
On May 16, 2018, the Company submitted an application proposing a new Tariff Schedule 197, 2017 Federal Tax Act Adjustment, to return the benefits of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to customers in Docket No. 20000-536-ER-18. The Company included, as part of its 3 application, a stipulated settlement agreement (“Stipulation”) between Rocky Mountain Power and the Wyoming Industrial Energy Consumers (“WIEC”) and a request to (1) reduce customer rates by $22.5 million; and (2) offset the 2018 Energy Cost Adjustment Mechanism (“ECAM”) deferral balance, for which the Company sought recovery in Docket No. 20000-535-EA-18 (“2018 ECAM”), by $3.6 million—both with benefits or savings resulting from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
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On March 15, 2019, the Commission issued its Final Order in the docket and approved the part of the Stipulation in which parties agreed to refund $22.5 million of the tax benefits to customers until the next general rate case using average-of-period rate base calculations and rejected the part of the Stipulation in which parties agreed to use some of the benefits to automatically offset future costs related to the ECAM and Energy Vision 2020 projects. The Commission indicated instead that it would consider them in future, separate applications.
Conversely, a vote for a corporate income tax rate hike is a vote for higher utility bills as households try to recover from the pandemic.
Many small businesses operate on tight margins and can't afford higher heating, cooling, gas, and refrigeration costs. President Biden should withdraw his tax increases.
Republicans Should Reject Cicilline Mega-Regulation Antitrust Package
Congressman David Cicilline (D-R.I.) is releasing a package of antitrust bills with several Democrat sponsors that would fundamentally rewrite antitrust law to the detriment of American shoppers.
Cicilline is attempting to use conservative anger at Big Tech to persuade Republican lawmakers into giving the Biden Administration nearly unchecked power to regulate the entire economy. Many of these bills import European competition policy that has no precedent in American law.
Make no mistake about it - these bills do nothing to address conservative concerns with Big Tech censorship. These bills are hardly antitrust bills. Taken together, these bills are a test run for unelected Democrats to regulate entire sectors of the American economy.
Republicans should reject all of the below legislation:
Platform Competition & Opportunity Act
The Platform Competition & Opportunity Act prohibits a handful of “covered” tech companies from acquiring software businesses. This bill will hamstring innovative businesses from making acquisitions that enable them to better compete with rival firms, improving choice and access to goods and services for all Americans in the process.
If implemented, this bill would erode our competitiveness on the global stage at a time when Congress just passed a $250 billion piece of legislation that is supposed to boost our competitiveness with China. It would also close off a critical pathway to success for small startups, half of which say their most realistic long-term goal is to be acquired by a larger firm.
Platform Anti-Monopoly Act
The Platform Anti-Monopoly Act would force platform companies to share sensitive personal user information with third parties, including app developers and foreign software. At the same time, the bill prohibits platforms from removing third-party sellers from their marketplaces.
This would force platforms to host malicious apps and then share personal information of American consumers with the developers.
Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act
The Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act would substantially increase the resources of the Biden FTC controlled by left-wing activists like Acting Chair Rebecca Slaughter and potential Commissioner Lina Khan.
This bill will expand the budget of the FTC at a time when the agency seems likely to use rulemaking authority to effectively create new substantive antitrust law, circumventing the legislative process and potentially implementing policy that Congress itself is unwilling to pass. The legislation will give money to unelected bureaucrats who intend to use the additional resources not just how they see fit, but to circumvent Congressional gridlock and input on antitrust law.
Ending Platform Monopolies Act
The Ending Platform Monopolies Act enacts a line-of-business restriction for platform companies that would prohibit them from selling private label goods. This bill would drastically limit access to private label goods for American shoppers, often offered at a lower price than brand name products.
So-called “self-preferencing,” where businesses promote their own private label products next to brand name products, is not endemic to platform companies. Brick-and-mortar stores often promote their own generic goods on shelves next to brand-name goods, or with promotional devices like end-caps and window displays.
Enacting a line-of-business restriction for platform companies would take away valuable products and services that shoppers value. Banning Amazon from selling AmazonBasics products is equivalent to banning Costco from selling Kirkland products - it makes no sense.
ACCESS Act
The ACCESS Act would force a few covered platform companies to disclose all their consumer data to competitors via a government-mandated “interface.” The bill would create massive privacy and liability issues, as companies would lose the ability to apply their own data security measures to information once it is imported to another platform. This would provide malicious hackers or criminals with a prime opportunity to circumvent security protocols implemented by certain platforms to access sensitive consumer data.
Additionally, the ACCESS Act requires companies to petition the FTC to make any changes to interoperability standards. The FTC can deny requests based on any reason related to “undermining interoperability.”
Taken together, these bills massively increase government power to regulate the economy. If passed into law, Biden bureaucrats would win, American shoppers would lose.
Republican lawmakers need to vote NO on all five of these bills.
Photo Credit: House Democratic Caucus
ATR Leads Coalition Against Global Minimum Tax
In partnership with the World Taxpayers Associations, Americans for Tax Reform is leading a large international coalition to oppose the implementation of a global minimum corporate tax rate. Interested organizations can sign the coalition letter here to join the movement.
On June 5th, 2021, the governments of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States agreed at a Group of Seven (G7) meeting to institute a global minimum corporate tax rate of at least 15 percent. The official 2021 G7 Summit will occur in the United Kingdom from June 11th to 13th. Leaders from the G7 countries are expected to promote an even more comprehensive agreement on international taxation at the G20 meeting in July.
“This agreement would significantly damage the valuable tax competition among countries and would cause undue harm to businesses, workers, and economies around the world,” reads the letter. “A global minimum tax would greatly curtail the force of tax competition. This competition between nations offers a critical check on the power of governments and it is vital for ensuring efficient and reasonable levels of taxation.”
The letter also notes that the proposed global minimum tax would be especially damaging to countries such as Ireland, Bulgaria, and Hungary, which currently have lower, more competitive corporate tax rates. A global minimum tax would also be harmful to developing countries, which can use low corporate tax rates in order to encourage investment and economic growth.
The international coalition recommends that the G7’s agreement on a global minimum corporate tax rate should be abandoned and should be rejected by the G20 in July.
Sign the coalition letter here to ensure that this harmful policy is not implemented on an international level.
Photo Credit: Linus Bohman
Biden’s Trillions in New Spending will Exacerbate Runaway Inflation
Inflation is running rampant in Joe Biden’s America. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that in May, consumer prices increased by 5 percent on an annualized basis, the fastest increase since 2008. While this inflation has already hit American families hard, President Biden is pushing policies which would this problem even worse.
According to BLS, the cost of many goods and services have increased significantly over the past year. For instance, lumber costs have increased 375 percent, car rentals have increased 110 percent, gasoline has increased 56 percent, airfares have increased 24 percent, and major appliances have increased by 12.3 percent. Furniture has increased 9 percent, whole milk has increased 7.2 percent, bacon has increased by 13 percent, and clothes have increased 6 percent.
Not only does inflation harm consumers by increasing household costs, but it can also have long lasting economic damage. As detailed in the New York Times:
“Inflation can erode purchasing power if wages do not keep up. A short-lived burst would be unlikely to cause lasting damage, but an entrenched one could force the Fed to cut its support for the economy, potentially tanking stocks and risking a fresh recession.”
With these trends in mind, it is especially concerning that President Joe Biden is pushing a multi-trillion budget, taking the U.S. to its highest sustained levels of federal spending since World War II, which is considered one of the most financially desperate times in American history. The budget calls for $6 trillion in spending for Fiscal Year 2022, spent on "infrastructure" and "human infrastructure." In reality, these plans are packed with wasteful spending. Flooding the U.S. economy with this kind of spending is bound to exacerbate inflation.
Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, a Democrat, has warned that Biden’s heaving spending could lead to stagflation. Janet Yellen, the Biden administration's Treasury Secretary, suggested that if inflation "becomes an issue", the Federal Reserve may have to raise interest rates, which could severely impede the recovery. In fact, all these factors could throw us into a deeper recession than before.
Biden's policies have already resulted in a sluggish recovery. For example, job growth has been incredibly disappointing due to the administration's federal unemployment insurance benefits. The simple threat of Biden's tax hikes has resulted in some companies implementing a hiring freeze and/or putting off other investments and company plans.
Despite the Biden administration’s assurances that inflation should not be a concern, voters are still deeply concerned about it.
88 percent of voters say they are concerned about increased inflation, according to a recent Harvard CAPS and Harris poll. When asked what causes inflation, the top three answers were "Massive government spending," "Significant amounts of money being injected in the economy by the Federal Reserve," and "Uncontrollable government deficits."
The Biden administration should focus on growing the economy and helping businesses and working families. Instead, they are pushing massive new spending projects to finance a liberal wish-list. With inflation concerns growing, this is a particularly bad time to be trillions in new spending.
Photo Credit: The White House
Flashback: IRS Stonewalled Lois Lerner Investigation and Let the "Midnight Unit" Destroy 24,000 Lerner Emails
Will they do it again?
With the recent revelation that "thousands" of citizens had their private IRS tax information stolen and given to a progressive organization, the agency confirmed federal investigations are underway. But will the agency stonewall again and allow evidence to be destroyed?
Last time there was an IRS scandal, the agency assured congress and the public that it was cooperating. In reality the IRS was stonewalling and destroying evidence related to the agency's targeting of conservative groups: In an over three-year period under the direction of Lois Lerner, only ONE conservative group was granted non-profit status.
In just one of the several instances of email destruction, backup tapes containing as many as 24,000 Lerner emails were destroyed by an IRS entity officially known as the “Media Management Midnight Unit” located in Martinsburg, West Virginia, per documentation released in July 2015 by the House Oversight Committee.
In all, 422 backup tapes holding the emails were magnetically “degaussed” despite an agency-wide preservation order and congressional subpoena. Degaussing is a process whereby powerful magnets are used to erase data on a storage tape.
The preservation order came from IRS Chief Technology Officer Terence Millholland in response to Congressional subpoenas over Lois Lerner’s emails. However, the agency completely failed to ensure the order was followed or understood. According to the House Oversight report:
“The IRS failed to ensure compliance with the preservation order at each turn. The IRS failed to confirm compliance with the preservation order in February 2014, upon learning of the gap in emails; failed to ensure the Media Management Midnight Unit, the team that destroyed the backup tapes, properly understood the preservation order; and failed to make certain that individuals who ordered the destruction of the specific media, in this instance the backup tapes, properly understood the preservation order.”
The backup tapes were sent to Martinsburg starting in May 2011, when the IRS took its backup system located in New Carrollton, Maryland and migrated it to the facility in West Virginia.
As the Oversight Committee report notes, IRS management failed to take simple steps to ensure backup tapes were not destroyed:
“Had IRS managers taken simple steps to ensure compliance with the order, the tapes likely would not have been destroyed.”
Interestingly, the tapes were destroyed a month after top IRS officials learned there were gaps in the Lerner email production.
In addition, Commissioner John Koskinen withheld both the preservation order and destruction of tapes from Congress:
“Koskinen withheld from Congress that a notice instructing preservation of backup tapes had been in place for over a year and that the IRS had deleted backup tapes containing as many as 24,000 emails during that time.”
As a result of the inability – or unwillingness -- of multiple IRS employees to follow the preservation order, as many as 24,000 emails are lost forever. As the House Oversight Committee notes:
“No one will ever know what was contained in those emails.”
Below is a 10-minute summary video outlining the IRS stonewalling of Congressional investigations into the Lois Lerner targeting scandal.
Durbin Backs Indexing Gas Tax to Inflation, Clear Violation of Biden’s $400,000 Tax Pledge
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Thursday that he supports indexing the gas tax to inflation to pay for an infrastructure package.
“I think that ultimately has to happen...I look at it as a user fee,” Durbin told reporters.
The call from Democrat Senate leadership to raise the gas tax comes as gas prices continue to soar over $3.00/gallon and consumer prices jumped 5% in May.
Indexing the federal gas tax to inflation would amount to a gas tax increase on autopilot. Congress has declined to increase the gas tax since 1993 when it was raised to its current level of 18.4 cents/gallon. For context, if the gas tax had been indexed to inflation in 1993, the current gas tax would be roughly 33.5 cents/gallon, more than an 80% increase of the current gas tax.
Durbin’s call to raise the gas tax is a clear contradiction of the Biden administration’s position to date and would violate President Biden’s promise that “nobody making less than $400,000 have to pay a penny more in tax under my proposals.”
Biden’s own Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttiegieg, has previously acknowledged that increasing the federal gas tax would violate Biden’s pledge.
“The President’s made a commitment that this administration will not raise taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year,” Buttigieg told Bloomberg Radio’s “Sound On” show in February. “And so that rules out approaches like the old fashioned gas tax.” Buttgieg’s comments came as he walked back his previous call to raise the gas tax and index it to inflation during confirmation hearings.
Photo Credit: Charles Edward Miller
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Nebraska Residents Will Get Stuck with Even Higher Utility Bills Due to Biden Corporate Tax Rate Hike
If Biden and the Democrats enact a corporate income tax rate increase, they will have to explain why they just increased your utility bills
If President Biden and congressional Democrats hike the corporate income tax rate, Nebraska households and businesses will get stuck with even higher utility bills.
Democrats plan to impose a corporate income tax rate increase to 28%, even higher than communist China's 25%. This does not even include state corporate income taxes, which average 4 - 5% nationwide.
Customers bear the cost of corporate income taxes imposed on utility companies. Corporate income tax cuts drive utility rates down, corporate income tax hikes drive utility rates up.
Electric, gas, and water companies must get their billing rates approved by the respective state utility commissions. When the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act cut the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%, utility companies worked with officials to pass along the tax savings to customers, including at least two Nebraska utilities. The savings take the form of either a rate reduction, or, a reduction to an existing/planned rate increase.
Working with the Nebraska Public Service Commission, Black Hills Gas Distribution, LLC and Black Hills/Nebraska Gas Utility Company passed along tax savings to their customers.
Black Hills Gas Distribution, LLC: As noted in this June 19, 2018 Nebraska Public Service Commission document:
There is a benefit to be realized by both Black Hills entities named in this docket as a result of the reduction in the federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%. This benefit should be passed on to Black Hills customers.
Under the plan proposed by the parties in the Stipulation, BHE would credit customers through a combination of fixed bill credits and volumetric bill credits. BHGD would only provide a fixed credit to its customers, with no volumetric component, due to the operation of the Choice Gas supply program.
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For BHGD, the total amount to be refunded would be approximately $926,691. The average residential customer of BHGD would receive $9.15 annually. The average small commercial customer would receive $15.87 annually. The average large commercial customer would receive $93.39 annually.
Black Hills/Nebraska Gas Utility Company: As noted in this June 19, 2018 Nebraska Public Service Commission document:
There is a benefit to be realized by both Black Hills entities named in this docket as a result of the reduction in the federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%. This benefit should be passed on to Black Hills customers.
Under the plan proposed by the parties in the Stipulation, BHE would credit customers through a combination of fixed bill credits and volumetric bill credits. BHGD would only provide a fixed credit to its customers, with no volumetric component, due to the operation of the Choice Gas supply program.
For BHE, the total amount to be refined would be approximately $2,287,403. The average residential customer would receive a total of approximately $9.53 annually. The average commercial/industrial customer would receive a total of approximately $22.65 annually. The average Energy Options Firm customer would receive a total of approximately $39.80 annually.
Conversely, a vote for a corporate income tax rate hike is a vote for higher utility bills as households try to recover from the pandemic.
Many small businesses operate on tight margins and can't afford higher heating, cooling, gas, and refrigeration costs. President Biden should withdraw his tax increases.
Biden Must Push Back Against EU's Discriminatory Digital Policies
Americans for Tax Reform supports the recent letter by Rep. Suzan DelBene and Rep. Darin LaHood encouraging the Biden Administration to counter unilateral digital regulations proposed by the European Union. The U.S. government must continue to protect American workers and consumers against discriminatory practices abroad.
"As you prepare for meetings with your European counterparts this month, we urge you to work with the E.U. to ensure non-discriminatory treatment for firms on both sides of the Atlantic," wrote DelBene and LaHood, Co-Chairs of the Digital Trade Caucus, in their letter to President Biden on Wednesday.
DelBene and LaHood specifically named their primary concern to be the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act introduced in the European Union, which would "regulate large technology firms and hit them with hefty fines for noncompliance." They noted that these pieces of legislation disproportionately target American companies and would have disastrous consequences for 19 million American workers employed by these businesses.
The members of Congress urged the Biden Administration to raise these concerns with the EU before the legislation is finalized and instead work toward an international solution that establishes fairer rules and prevents discriminatory targeting of digital companies in one or more countries.
ATR shares the concerns expressed in the letter and encourages the Biden Administration to continue pushing back against discriminatory digital policies in the European Union and other countries. Besides the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act, a number of countries have also established or proposed discriminatory Digital Services Taxes (DSTs), which harm American workers as well.
The Biden Administration must ensure that American jobs and businesses are allowed to thrive on a fair international playing field.
Photo Credit: June Stricker/Hanson Professional Services Inc.
Taxpayer Protection Pledge Signer Jack Ciattarelli Wins NJ Gubernatorial Primary
Americans for Tax Reform congratulates New Jersey Taxpayer Protection Pledge signer Jack Ciattarelli on winning the New Jersey Republican primary for Governor.
Incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D) reckless tax-and-spend agenda has given New Jersey the unwelcome distinction of being ranked 50th in the country for its overall Business Tax Climate. For that reason, it should be no surprise that the Garden State has become one of the worst places in the nation to start a small business under Murphy’s leadership.
Ciattarelli, however, has committed himself to helping small businesses and alleviating their tax burden, whereas Murphy has imposed job-killing coronavirus restrictions.
“As a small business owner, I know the struggles New Jersey businesses are facing firsthand. Another four years of Murphy will only bring us more economic chaos and close more Main Street businesses across the state,” said Ciattarelli on Twitter.
Additionally, according to Bloomberg Wealth, New Jersey residents will pay the most taxes over a lifetime. Garden State taxpayers will pay an average of $931,698, well above the $525,000 national average. New Jersey is also home to the highest property tax rate in the country, sitting a whopping 2.2%. This works out to be an average of $9,196 per single-family home.
“For almost four years, Governor Murphy has failed to deliver real change or address the issues New Jerseyans struggle with every day,” said Ciattarelli in a press release. “As our next governor, I will rebuild Main Street, get our kids back in school, and ensure our residents have the quality of life they've always envisioned.”
New Jersey, as it recovers from the harsh coronavirus restrictions and tax hikes imposed by Gov. Murphy, needs a taxpayer advocate in Trenton like Jack Ciattarelli.
Americans for Tax Reform offers the Pledge to all candidates for state and federal office. New candidates sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge regularly. For the most up-to-date information on these races or any other, please visit the ATR Pledge Database.
Photo Credit: Jack Ciattarelli
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