Published July 28, 2022
Republicans are right to oppose the new tax hike and climate spending deal from Sen. Joe Manchin III. That doesn’t mean there aren’t things they can learn from the West Virginia Democrat’s effort — especially when it comes to raising taxes.
The deal appears to be yet another liberal bait-and-switch. It pledges to raise more revenue than it spends for climate and energy programs, but the scant details on the package do not inspire confidence. Almost all of the deficit reduction will come from two nebulous sources: money saved from Medicare drug price negotiation and raised from increased enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service. Those could be considerable, or they could amount to little or nothing. If those sources don’t deliver, this bill is simply a paid-for spending hike.
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Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges, from the left and the right. He also studies populism’s impact in other democracies in the developed world.
Image via Senate Democrats on Wikimedia Commons
Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges, from the left and the right. He also studies populism’s impact in other democracies in the developed world.