Opinion

Hillary’s Basket Of Tax Hikes

REUTERS/Carlos Barria.

Toni-Anne Barry Federal Affairs Associate, Americans for Tax Reform
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This election poses a sharp contrast on taxes. Donald Trump and the House GOP blueprint are both calling for sweeping, pro-growth tax reform with rate reduction across the board. Hillary Clinton on the other hand never mentions the need for tax reform. She offers no rate reduction for any individual or business. In fact, she has already proposed a series of tax increases that amount to a net tax hike of over $1 trillion over the next decade.

Clinton plans to hit American taxpayers on every financial front. Income tax increases, business tax increases, a death tax hike, a new financial transactions tax, a capital gains tax hike, and even onerous new “fairness” taxes.

Hillary’s income tax increase alone will cost Americans $350 billion. This is to ostensibly pay for her “free college” plan, shifting the responsibility from the student to the hard working American taxpayer.

Philadelphia is finding out the hard way what a Hillary-endorsed tax will do to middle income Americans. With her support, Philly mayor Jim Kenney signed into law a 1.5 cent tax on each ounce of soda in late June, raising the average price of a six-pack by $2.16. Bernie Sanders called Clinton out on endorsing the tax:

“Frankly, I am very surprised that Secretary Clinton would support this regressive tax after pledging not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000. This proposal clearly violates her pledge,” he said.

The city is facing numerous lawsuits and will undoubtedly face more backlash as soon as the tax takes effect in 2017.

Hillary’s college plan is not the only big-government initiative that the American taxpayers will be forced to pay for. U.S. businesses already face the highest corporate tax rate in the world but the Clinton campaign has called for $275 billion in higher taxes on them. Hillary plans to take some of this tax money and spend it on “free WiFi.” No joke. She even touted the plan in a tweet aimed at millennials.

Judging by the service at the post office and your local DMV, are you excited for government-run WiFi?

$400 billion of the $1 trillion tax plan is a beefed up “Buffett Rule” which she claims is a “fairness tax.” Clinton wants to impose a 30% minimum tax on all individuals and families making over $1 million dollars a year. Her plan will also implement a “Fair Share Surcharge,” an additional 4% income tax on those making more than $5 million annually. Hillary’s Fairness Tax is nothing other than redistributing wealth in order to barter for votes. Hillary has proven that she will sacrifice the state of the economy for her own personal gain.

The U.S. tax code is so uncompetitive and burdensome that it is forcing American businesses to move abroad. But Hillary is not interested in solving the underlying problem. Instead she’s planning to slap an “Exit Tax” on businesses that are forced to leave. Her proposal states that it will raise $80 billion dollars in revenue by taxing income earned overseas.

Outside of the tax increases that the Clinton campaign has released projected costs for are the numerous tax hikes she has been unwilling to put a public price tag on. While Trump has proposed abolishing the Death Tax, Hillary wants to raise it to 45 percent.

On top of Hillary’s plan to tax American assets, Hillary has supported a 25% national retail gun sales tax since 1993. A tax directly harming Second Amendment rights.

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos questioned Hillary in a June interview on if she still supported her gun tax endorsement from 1993. She refused to rebuke her statement and stood by her plan to tax American gun owners.

Hillary wants to punish firearms dealers as well, having endorsed a hike in federal annual federal dealer fee to $2,500. Combined with Obama’s executive order on guns, this fee could include an individual owner looking to sell one or two guns from their own collection. The cost of the fee in many cases will be more than the price of the gun being sold.

To top it all off, Hillary’s campaign chairman John Podesta recently announced that she would be open to a carbon tax.

Hillary Clinton has made it clear what she will do if elected President: Raise taxes on American families and businesses across the board and use the funds to increase the size of government.

Toni-Anne Barry is a federal affairs associate at Americans for Tax Reform.