White House press secretary Jen Psaki has concluded that the economics of companies who pass along higher costs to their customers is just wrong.
Actually, the word she used is “absurd.”
Jen Psaki: It’s “unfair and absurd” that companies would increase costs for consumers in response to us taxing them more. 😳 pic.twitter.com/rHilrYdj4j
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) September 28, 2021
She was responding this week to a question about a new plan to raise taxes on Americans.
It was President Biden who has promised repeatedly that his tax increases won’t hit anyone making less than $400,000 a year, although multiple analysts have debunked that claim.
The reporter asked, “I want to ask you about what Republicans are pointing to in the analysis from the Joint Committee on Taxation. They say, according to — if I’ve read the chart correctly, more than 16 percent of taxpayers would see their taxes increase under the bill that’s approved by the House Ways and Means Committee. Will the President sign that bill if — as if — it is coming out of that committee? Or will he insist on the changes so that he will maintain his commitment that taxes won’t go up on people making $400,000 a year?”
Psaki said she had not seen the report, but gave her opinion anyway.
It was on corporate economics.
“Obviously, the president’s commitment remains not raising taxes for anyone making less than $400,000 a year. There are some — and I’m not sure if this is the case in this report — who argue that, in the past, companies have passed on these costs to consumers. I’m not sure if that’s the argument being made in this report. We feel that that’s unfair and absurd, and the American people would not stand for that.”
A blog post responding to her comments said, “What in the world is she thinking? … Yes, Psaki thinks that if the government takes more money from companies through higher taxes that it would be ‘unfair and absurd’ for those companies to charge more for their products and goods to make up the costs.”
Actually, taxes on corporations ultimately are paid by their customers, who provide the revenue stream for them to stay in business.
The Free Beacon noted, “A number of economic studies have found that consumers bear approximately 31 percent of the cost of corporate tax increases through higher prices on consumer products.”
Columnist David Harsanyi wrote, about her comments, “The way the Biden administration talks about economics isn’t only transparently dishonest, it’s embarrassingly juvenile. Economic realities aren’t predicated on ‘fairness.’ Perhaps in the progressive Shangri-La where a $3.5 trillion bill is ‘free’ and throwing trillions into the economy helps lower inflation one has the luxury of pretending that taxes do not pass through to consumers.
“Companies are in the business of making a profit — and the bigger the profit the better. Otherwise, they do not exist,” he said.
“This is how the economy grows. This is how jobs and technologies are created. These are the realities, unfair or not. Democrats have adopted a — sorry, I’m not sure how else to put it — fascistic notion that businesses exist to participate in the ‘common good’ as dictated by the state (when they run it). If this had been the case over the past century, many of the great efficiencies and technological comforts you enjoy would probably not exist.”
He charged that the rhetoric “is an outgrowth of the extraordinarily stupid idea that ‘free’ college and ‘free’ health care exist. These are the same people who tell you there will be no serious trade-offs when greening the economy and artificially spiking energy prices. Good and services do not spring forth from the ether without costs simply because voters are big fans of windmills and community college.”
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