During a visit to Tidewater Community College in Portsmouth, Virginia, on Monday, Biden appeared to offer yet another informational blunder regarding his tax proposals.
“I keep hearing in the press, ‘Biden’s going to raise your taxes,’” the president said. “Anybody making less than $400k a year will not pay a single penny in taxes…”
BIDEN: "I keep hearing in the press: 'Biden's going to raise your taxes.' Anybody making less than $400k a year will not pay a single penny in taxes…" pic.twitter.com/AFcSiNl37k
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 3, 2021
Left-wing fact-checking outlet, Snopes, commented that “Biden clearly misspoke when he said people making less than $400,000 ‘will not pay a single penny in taxes,’” and that “In his past statements on his economic plan, Biden has claimed that people making less than $400,000 ‘won’t pay a penny more in taxes.’”
As Snopes noted, Biden’s campaign promise to not raise taxes for people making less than $400,000 was included in April’s “American Families Plan”:
In all, the American Families Plan includes $1.8 trillion in investments and tax credits for American families and children over ten years. It consists of about $1 trillion in investments and $800 billion in tax cuts for American families and workers. Alongside the American Families Plan, the President will be proposing a set of measures to make sure that the wealthiest Americans pay their share in taxes, while ensuring that no one making $400,000 per year or less will see their taxes go up. When combined with President Biden’s American Jobs Plan, this legislation will be fully paid for over 15 years, and will reduce deficits over the long term.
Biden’s rhetoric on the $400,000 limit, however, has been far more unclear than Snopes is conveying. For example, William McBride, vice president for federal tax and economic policy at the Tax Foundation, questioned whether such a promise is even feasible.
“I challenge you to find an economist who will say that is even possible,” said McBride, according to CNBC. “If you raise tax on this taxpayer here, good luck in isolating that effect to just that taxpayer. It’s not actually possible.”
In addition, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has added further confusion to Biden’s tax promise, saying that Biden means “families,” rather than individuals.
“Anybody making more than $400,000 will see a small to a significant tax increase,” Biden told George Stephanopoulos, reported The Wall Street Journal. He added: “If you make less than $400,000, you won’t see one single penny in additional federal tax.”
The Wall Street Journal then reported that “White House press secretary Jen Psaki later conceded that the $400,000 threshold was for ‘families,’ not individuals.”
This means that two married individuals, both with incomes lower than $400,000 annually but amounting to more than $400,000 when combined, could see a tax increase — flying in the face of Biden’s campaign “promise.”
“This is a familiar tax bait and switch,” The Wall Street Journal continued. “Democrats promise they’ll tax only the rich, but there aren’t enough rich, and the rich don’t have enough money to finance the Democratic Party’s endless spending schemes. Millions of the Americans Mr. Biden wants to tax aren’t rich. They are successful Americans, typically at the peak of their earning lives, who might make $200,000 for a few years.”