Biden infrastructure/tax increase megathread

[Beet]

I know you people hate him, rightfully so, but I will forever be thankful to Trump for ending the love for Reaganomics and minimum government enthusiasts neverending race to how much nonexistent government should be. I regard him in a significantly higher position than Bush.

From Democrats in the Obama era competing on who could be the most right-wing for the sake of compromise 10 years ago to Trump, a Republican president, pushing all these people way to the left after saying stuff like $600 checks being insufficient lmao

I approve the Keynesian shift! But it needs to be even more. So far Biden has been above average of what I expected. Already showing signs he will be significantly better than Obama at least. Naturally it isn’t something that Biden always wanted, the current context with COVID, political polarization, high economic anxiety and all that is something that pushes people to those positions, kinda like the context of post-1929 and pre-WW2 pushed FDR to be the leader he was.

Trump didn't end it. The US left was already moving that way before. Going all the way back to 2011 when OWS started. Biden is actually a disappointment compared to what you saw during the primaries in 2019-2020.

Also you're really underrating how economically populist Bush was. Remember he passed Medicare Part D which is a permanent expansion of Medicare unlike Trump's stimulus which was temporary. And the CARES Act being temporary as well. Bush expanded government more than both of them.

[Beet]

Under current rules, whoever inherits the Amazon shares Bezos bought in 1994 for $10,000, worth $180 billion today, will receive a so-called step-up in basis, wiping out any capital gains tax liability. Biden’s plan would close that loophole and apply the top capital gains tax immediately when assets transfer to wealthy heirs. If the rate increases -- it’s 20% for holdings like Bezos’s, and Biden has called for boosting it to 39.6% -- the eventual tax bill would too.

For Bill and Melinda Gates, who announced on Monday that they would be divorcing, a change in the step-up rule might be less costly. The Gates fortune, valued at $145.8 billion, is older, and they’ve already sold or donated much of their stake in Microsoft Corp. But $26 billion of Microsoft shares remain, and it isn’t clear how the couple will manage their assets in a split.

Congress estimates that stepping up the tax basis of inherited assets costs the government about $43 billion a year. Ending that practice and raising the rate would amount to the biggest curb on dynastic wealth in decades, altering an American economic landscape dominated by a few wealthy families.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-04/biden-tax-rule-would-rip-billions-from-biggest-fortunes-at-death

[Beet]

Also how does the article mention dynastic wealth and at least doesn't use the Walton's/Rockefeller's?

Bezos/Gates had pretty nice upbringing's in the Upper middle class to borderline 1% IIRC but definitely not anything close to billionaires.  Pretty garbage example for dynastic wealth to use a 1st generation billionaire.

Because the future is more important than the past. I'd even include people like Mark Zuckerberg. Any tech billionaire with kids and you're looking at the future ruling class of the world. It's not just the money these people have but their insider status in the world of digital gold and the Fourth industrial revolution.

[Beet]

I mean, if Biden really wanted to he could simply do stuff via executive order and unilaterally shift around money that Congress has appropriated for other purposes, letting it go through as challenges meander their way glacially through the court system, and then simply ignoring the latter altogether. But he lacks Trump's chutzpah.

[Beet]

The climate deal is badly needed good news for Biden. Given that the Democrats lack a governing majority, passing this and the Infrastructure bill isn't such a bad job. The man is contending with a hostile China, a wartime Russia, a hostile opposition party, an unfriendly Supreme Court and a pandemic and he's doing it with 50 Senate seats. Yes he needs to do more but he may not be as bad as some have been saying (including myself sometimes).