Perlmutter targeted in ad blasting Biden’s budget bill kickbacks to wealthy blue state donors

Nov 16, 2021

The conservative American Action Network is turning up the heat on U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter for supporting President Biden’s $1.75 trillion budget bill.

https://twitter.com/AAN/status/1460306614242713614

The ad is part of a larger $2 million advertising buy across eight House districts.

AAN’s investment in Colorado’s 7th District is the latest sign national Republicans see the district as highly competitive despite the revised district’s slight Democrat +7 tilt.

Perlmutter, California’s U.S. Rep. Josh Harder, and U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas of New Jersey are featured in a version of the ad that explains how House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s cronies (trial lawyers, Hollywood and the media) get tax breaks while working Americans and small businesses get the bill for Democrats’ spending.

“Nancy Pelosi’s plan doles out trillions in handouts to her liberal cronies, but sticks working Americans with the bill through tax hikes and skyrocketing prices,” said AAN President Dan Conston.

“Even liberal members of Congress now admit their big spending policies are causing the economic pain families are feeling. They should heed their own advice and reverse course.”

The most recent iteration of Democrats’ reconciliation bill includes a $285 billion tax cut that would almost exclusively benefit wealthy households in blue high tax states over the next five years.

The Trump tax cuts capped what is known as the state and local tax (SALT) deduction at $10,000, but Democrats want to jack it up to $80,000.

Overall, that $285 billion SALT tax cut for the wealthy is actually the second largest spending item in the budget bill nicknamed “Build Back Better.”

When one considers high tax states like New York and California overwhelmingly contain key Democrat donor constituencies like trial lawyers, Hollywood, and media/entertainment, it’s obvious what Democrats like Perlmutter are up to.

If those kickbacks weren’t bad enough, the bill also includes new write-offs for wealthy liberals to buy Teslas and other electric cars with Chinese parts.

Unless you can afford an electric car, that leaves the rest of us SOTL.

Talk about priorities.

To pay for these tax breaks, the bill institutes a bevy of massive tax increases on the rest of the country.

The increases would be so large the U.S. would actually have the highest combined top tax rate among major nations throughout the world.

The Tax Foundation recently compared the combined tax rates on individual income at all levels of government across major nations. Today the U.S. is in the middle of the pack with a still very high top rate on income of 42.9%, including federal and average state tax rates. That’s a little above the current Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average of 42.6%.

 

But not for long. Under the Democratic plan, the combined U.S. top rate would climb to 57.4% by 2026. The U.S. would leap over 22 other countries in the OECD tax ranking, including Italy (47.2%), Sweden (52.3%), and even France (55.4%). Germany comes in at a relative bargain at 47.2%. Congratulations, America, you’ll be Number One.

 

The increase would come from the income tax surcharge the bill slaps on the gross income of high earners—a 5% rate on earnings above $10 million and another 3% on income above $25 million. That’s on top of the current 37% top federal tax rate. But unlike the ordinary income tax, the surcharge rates would also apply to non-wage earnings like capital gains, punishing savers who earn a big one-time windfall.

The measure would also hit small business owners by increasing the corporate income tax rate.

That might sound like something that just affects Wall Street, but the vast majority of small business owners and self-employed workers file their taxes at the corporate rate.

Consumers get to pay for that tax increase in the form of higher prices (on top of massive inflation), while investors and savers get stuck with the bill since raising the corporate income tax is really tantamount to raising taxes on the entire stock market.

Perlmutter told Colorado Public Radio he thinks the bill will get voted on before Thanksgiving, so we expect to see a healthy dose of ads like this in the interim.

Voters will see the ads featuring Perlmutter and other Democrats across TV and digital mediums.

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