Sens. Mitt Romney and Joe Manchin recently testified together in front of the House Budget Committee in favor of a bill to create a “bipartisan fiscal commission.” Romney made a quip about a Romney-Manchin presidential ticket and moments later both senators endorsed tax increases in the fiscal commission.
Romney and Manchin put a payroll tax increase on the table, a Biden-endorsed tax increase that would kill jobs, reduce wages and wallop small businesses and the self-employed.
Manchin said:
“Take the cap off, the FICA cap, OK?”
Romney said:
“What should they — what should the tax be? I mean, on what part of income should it be? Should it be — should we lift the cap, as Senator Manchin has indicated? So all those things are on the table for discussion.”
Biden endorsed such a payroll tax increase during his 2020 campaign.
The Romney-Manchin-Biden payroll tax increase will hit workers, small businesses and the self-employed. The tax hike saddles main street businesses and hard working contractors with what amounts to a significantly higher marginal tax rate.
The Tax Foundation noted that this $808 billion payroll tax hike would kill 350,000 jobs, reduce wages and harm the U.S. economy: “The economic incidence of the payroll tax is fully borne on workers in the form of lower wages. This lowers the return to labor, resulting in a drop in economic output.”
As Fox Business Network host Larry Kudlow pointed out this week, “bipartisan fiscal commissions” are a tax trap.
Kudlow said:
“The trouble with these so-called bipartisan commissions is that they start raising taxes at the very first meeting even before the first cup of coffee has been poured.”
Romney doesn’t even drink coffee but he’s already dreaming of tax hikes and a national media tour to try to tarnish Republicans with his “bipartisan” tax increase.
The fiscal commission hasn’t passed either chamber. Romney is spearheading the Senate effort to create the commission and doom his fellow Republicans as tax hikers as the media-phototropic senator embarks on his own national tour of some sort.
Drifting into a discussion of tax increases makes no sense. Taxpayers want to know that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — also known as the Trump tax cuts — will be extended. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have vowed at least 22 times to “eliminate,” “get rid of,” “end,” and “repeal” the tax cuts.
Congressional Republicans want to extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. How will they get that message through to the American people if Romney is running around the country campaigning for “bipartisan payroll tax increase” in their name?
As ATR president Grover Norquist noted, the fiscal commission “will destroy the Trump tax cuts.”
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As the saying goes, if you send it they will spend it.
In 1982 Democrats made a “bipartisan grand bargain” with President Reagan promising $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax increases. Result: The tax increases happened, the spending cuts did not. Reagan regretted getting lied to and later said, “We never got the $3 in spending cuts.”
In 1990 Democrats made a “bipartisan grand bargain” with President George H.W. Bush promising $2 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax increases. Result: The tax increases happened, the spending cuts did not. Bush regretted getting lied to and later said, “It was a mistake to go along with the Democratic tax increase and I admit it.”
And here comes Lucy with her football, again.
Below: Mitt Romney puts tax increases on the table: