The whopping $1.9 trillion so-called “American Rescue Plan” signed into law by President Biden last week is a national disgrace.
Before putting his pen to paper on the bill, the president claimed that “this historic legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country” and “giving people in this nation, working people, middle-class folks, the people who built this country, a fighting chance.”
Either Biden was intentionally misleading the public, or he didn’t read the thing, because it does nothing of the sort. The nearly two trillion-dollar stimulus bill is packed with more pork than a five hundred pound pig, including $86 billion for union pensions and $100 billion for state pension funds.
In total, the legislation allocates around $350 billion for state and local governments, even though most are not experiencing the predicted tax revenue shortfall many thought would result from the pandemic. This is nothing less than a blatant wealth transfer to bankrupt blue states whose economic woes began years before COVID emerged.
And as for the economic suffering caused by the pandemic — it wasn’t. The economic collapse that hit communities in states across the country was the result of bad governance and irrational and damaging responses to the virus, not the virus itself. To bail out states that could have opened up — but didn’t — at the expense of states that wisely chose not to completely destroy their economies is entirely unethical and immoral.
Nor is the bill targeted towards the folks Biden mentioned at the signing, you know, the “working people, middle-class folks, the people who built this country.” Stimulus checks can go to convicted felons and illegal immigrants.
Shockingly, the bill’s $1.9 trillion price tag also includes vaccine distribution for illegal aliens and, in a disgusting slap in the face to the already-suffering American people, a $75 billion carveout for foreign food banks.
In addition to giving money to criminals and foreigners, the bill also takes money away from working people and small businesses. The legislation includes a business tax increase, requiring companies that work with “third-party” gig workers to report more transactions to the IRS.
Under current law, companies don’t have to report transactions to the IRS unless a contractor is paid more than $20,000 and 200 or more transactions are made. The bill would lower the reporting threshold to $600 and eliminate the transaction threshold altogether. This will likely result in more taxes being paid by ride-share drivers and food delivery contractors, who are already suffering in the post-lockdown environment.
It is clear that the only people the “American Rescue Plan” rescues are President Biden’s Democrat pals who have governed their states into economic ruin through decades of irresponsible spending and reckless responses to the coronavirus pandemic. It is also clear that the plan is hardly American, given billions of dollars to foreign nationals and foreign countries.
At a time when Americans desperately need real hope and real economic opportunity, the so-called stimulus package seems tailor-made to take both from them, massively increasing the debt of generations to come in the process.
As the disastrous provisions of this bill take effect, it will become painfully evident that the “American Rescue Plan” is really a plan for an American nightmare.
Julio Gonzalez founded Engineered Tax Services
