The United States will risk becoming Venezuela or Cuba in the long term if the Democrats succeed in passing their at-least $3.5 trillion economic overhaul they are dubbing "human infrastructure", historian and author Victor Davis Hanson warned Thursday on "The Story."
Hanson, author of "The Dying Citizen", called President Biden's claim that the price tag is "zero" because it will allegedly be "paid for" "bizarre" – comparing that idea to someone buying a car fully in cash and then claiming it cost nothing because it wasn't put on the credit card or funded by a loan.
Hanson said that cash still represents hours of labor and investment, even if it doesn't affect one's balance sheet.
In the same way, Biden, who billed himself as pro-working-class throughout his Senate career, is essentially telling all of the "producers" in the economy, from family farms to small business owners, that they will be taxed on what the government views as excess personal revenue that other people haven't been privy to earning themselves.
Lawmakers like Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., further warn it will lead to a socialist America.
The Democrats seek to restructure the estate tax – often dubbed the "death tax" – to potentially tripling it and adding a levy on unrealized gains. More Americans would also be hit with higher capital gains taxes – the tax someone pays for earning money in everything from a basic mutual fund to high-dollar stock transactions.
"It’s a mechanism of saying you people that are very productive and been affluent in a way, maybe that [the government believes] wasn’t so good or maybe you work too hard or you didn’t earn that money," Hanson said.
"For the people that weren’t as successful, [the government] said something like, well, somebody did something to you and you’re in this particular position -- So we in our infinite wisdom as Nancy Pelosi and the redistributive state are going to take it from this person and redistribute it through our power and influence to you."
Hanson said the "human infrastructure" bill could further destroy the U.S. economy as it recovers from COVID lockdowns and continues to suffer from labor shortages.
At the same time, Democrats have given no indicator as to how they will pay for everything that hiking taxes on the working class and upper class won't cover.
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"The word "equality" has been dropped out and replaced by equity. Equity means equality not of opportunity [but] equality of result – It’s the old philosophical warning that once a person feels they’re equal politically and that doesn’t result in absolute equality of material possession and income, then the government steps in to ensure that," he said.
"That is what is scary. Every time we heard equity, it means we in our infinite wisdom say … the government is going to ensure that we’re all equal in the back end. That leads us to something like in history like Cuba, Venezuela or worse."
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