Biden: Please! NO more talk of new taxes!

In his July 9 Speech in Dunmore Pennsylvania, Joe Biden proposed raising the corporate tax rate to 28%. This was a strategic mistake.

If Joe Biden is trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory he should keep on talking about raising taxes. No one ever won an election promising to raise taxes and several elections have been lost just that way.

Never mind that Biden earlier said he would not raise the taxes of anyone earning up to $400,000. Also never mind that his proposed raise of the corporate rate to 28% is still lower than it was before Trump’s corporate tax cut giveaway. They are still tax raises.

It is foolish to assume that voters will respond to such nuances. And arguing for any kind of tax raise won’t add new voters to the Biden column. But it surely will cost some votes among the many who are traumatized by the mere mention of increased taxes.

By the time Trump gets through demonizing him over it, Biden is certain to lose votes by this gratuitous mistake. “Tax and spend,” is not the kind of charge the Democrats want to fuel.

When Joe Biden finds it necessary to spell out how he will finance his bold economic plan, he shouldn’t get into specifics in terms of tax raising percentages. Instead, he should approach anything involving raising revenue through taxes very gently. Consider, For example, how much softer and less threatening it is to say that we will correct the unfairness of the Trump corporate giveaway by returning rates used successfully by Ronald Reagan!