There seems to be something for everyone in the massive spending packages now working their way through Congress. And with a price tag of $4.6 trillion, or $37,400 per household, offering something for everyone--be it government-paid family leave, monthly child payments, tuition-free community college, union dues write-offs, a $12,500 electric vehicle tax credit, or new bike paths--is easy.
Families deserve to know how much big-government policies will cost them--not only in taxes, but in how those policies will affect their paychecks and the prices they pay for everything from gas and groceries to utilities and child care.
President Joe Biden promised he wouldn't raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000, but Congress' official nonpartisan scorekeepers said that his plan would raise taxes on millions of middle-class families.
Beginning in 2023, taxes would rise for nearly 6 million taxpayers that make less than $100,000. By 2027, more than half of all families earning between $75,000 and $100,000 would pay more in taxes. Taxes would even rise on hundreds of thousands of families making less than $20,000 a year.
Corporations seem like an easy target for tax hikes because we tend to think of them in abstract ways--as corporate logos and big buildings. But logos and buildings don't pay taxes. People do.
Across the U.S., companies would be hit with large tax hikes that economists agree would mostly be paid for by employees of those businesses through lower wages, less work and fewer benefits.
If higher taxes and lower incomes weren't bad enough, another squeeze to families' budgets will be higher prices.
After $6.5 trillion in covid-19 spending and the Federal Reserve buying more than half of the massive increase in U.S. debt over the past year, the risks of inflation are high. Another $4.6 trillion in spending between the $1.1 trillion infrastructure package and the $3.5 trillion big government socialist package would further stoke inflation and fiscal crisis risks.
And finally, so-called green energy policies will drastically increase costs for ordinary Americans while creating special benefits for wealthy Americans and corporations.
According to an analysis from the Heritage Foundation, the Green New Deal would cost every American $1,991 per year over the next decade, or nearly $8,000 per year for a family of four.
When combined, higher taxes, lower incomes, higher prices and added energy costs could cost the typical American household $100,000 over the next decade.
Compared to $37,400 per household in new government spending, that's a pretty raw deal for ordinary Americans.
Rachel Greszler is a research fellow in economics at The Heritage Foundation.