BloggeRhythms

With election day less than three weeks away, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board has finally posted Democrat cost estimates today. Selections separate each group regarding how various segments of the economy will perform.  

Bidenomics

“Overall, the authors estimate that the Biden agenda, if fully implemented, would reduce full-time equivalent employment per person by about 3%, the capital stock per person by some 15%, and real GDP per capita by more than 8%. Compared to Congressional Budget Office estimates for these variables in 2030, this means there would be 4.9 million fewer working Americans, $2.6 trillion less in GDP, and $6,500 less in median household income.

“The analytical details are especially helpful on energy costs and the “labor wedge” against hiring that have received little attention. Mr. Biden denies he supports the Green New Deal, but his plans to promote electric vehicles and phase out fossil fuels go far beyond anything Mr. Obama proposed.

“To take only one example, the electrification of most passenger cars would increase the per capita demand for electric power by 25% even as more than 70% of baseline electric power from fossil fuels would go offline. Bridging this supply-demand gulf would require enormous subsidies and far more investment and labor to achieve the same energy output. Mr. Biden’s energy plans would cut total factor productivity by 1%-2% across the entire economy.

“Mr. Biden is also proposing substantial increases in business tax rates that will raise the cost of capital. The former Vice President likes to say he’d only raise the top corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%. But so-called pass-through entities (often small businesses) employ more than 40 million Americans, and most pay taxes at the individual tax rate.

“Biden’s plan to raise personal income and payroll tax rates would push their federal rates from below 40 percent to, often, above 50 percent, and these are on top of state income taxes,” the authors write.

“Mr. Biden would also raise capital costs by phasing down bonus depreciation in the 2017 tax reform, and he’d raise labor costs by imposing the 12.4% Social Security payroll tax to income above $400,000. The $400,000 threshold isn’t indexed for inflation so it would apply to ever-more Americans as the years go by.”

In summation, ultimate costs gather to the public as follows: “The risk from Joe Biden’s policies isn’t that they will send the economy reeling right away. The problem is that they will have a long-term corrosive impact by raising the cost of capital, reducing the incentive to work and invest, and reducing productivity across the economy. Americans will pay the price in a lower standard of living than they otherwise would—and that they deserve.”

Highlights from reader opinions are illustrated in the following posted comments:

Reader ron neff:

"And....the think left our of the editorial is that with millions streaming across the border unimpeded---or even welcomed by the Harris/Biden administration,  millions more Americans are out of work because of illegal immigration.   And....this is not just limited to low wage, low skilled workers.   The Chamber of Commerce and Harris/Biden will open the throttle to full speed for visas for IT and white collar employees.    Looks bad for the low end of the wage scale up thru and including middle class Americans.  Remember when TVA was importing foreign workers to replace Americans and Trump stopped it ?   Do not expect Harris/Biden to do anything similar."   

 

Reader GeorgeB Purdell:

"Here's a shorter version of the above article.
We are recovering, but unevenly. A broader recovery will not occur until we get a vaccine. 
Biden is lying now about the economy, and is planning to take full credit for the ongoing recover as soon as he is sworn in.
The negative impacts on incentive, growth, employment, and investment of a Biden economic plan will be swept under the rug by a compliant and lying media. Until it can't.
Economics can't be denied. Eventually the deficit spending, entitlements, political lying, and media pretending will catch up with us.
That means the path out of a Biden/Harris socialist regime is a wrenching depression and currency devaluation.
Biden/Harris will use every trick to kick the can down the road, maximizing the inevitable pain."

All of which illustrates that no matter how Biden policies become implemented, the only way their rising costs can be covered is ultimately to be collected from the tax-paying lower and middle class. Meaning that the nation’s economy will certainly be caused to undoubtedly sink, no matter what.

That’s it for today folk.

Adios