“With the kind of tax system we have, inflation raises other kinds of taxes without anybody having to vote for it,” Nobel-winning economist Milton Friedman observed years ago.
“You’re pushed up into higher brackets of the income tax,” Friedman explained. “The Congress, again, is in a marvelous position. It can vote to lower tax rates when in fact taxes are going up.”
How do you like them apples? Hidden tax rates! Like visible ones aren’t bad enough. And inflation is just one of many hidden taxes imposed on us – all of which redound to the benefit of grifters in Congress without one in ten taxpayers having any idea they’re being had.
In addition to being an obvious boondoggle, the so-called Build Back Better Act is a classic example of a bill whose (intended) inflationary impact is going to be more onerous than the cost of the bill itself. Yet, members of Congress have the gall to say that it’s not going to cost anything at all, that it will somehow “pay for itself.”
Rubbish! If passed, the legislation will ultimately cost far more than estimated by objective analysts, and the invisible inflationary tax it imposes will be several times higher. You can take that to the bank, if you can find one after the damage has been done.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) may not have Friedman’s credentials, but he does have a better understanding of inflation than the average layman and is speaking out about the dangerous inflationary potential of the Build Back Better Act.
“Over the past year, Congress has injected more than $5 trillion of stimulus into the American economy – more than any time since World War II – to respond to the pandemic,” Manchin emphasizes. “The challenge we now face is different: millions of jobs remain unfilled across the country and rising inflation rates are now an unavoidable tax on the wages and income of every American. These are not indications of an economy that requires trillions in additional spending.”
You tell ’em, Joe!