In the nearly two months since he was inaugurated, President Joe Biden has faced criticism for failing to honor campaign promises on various issues, including his decision to reopen child migrant detention facilities and a push for $1,400 stimulus checks instead of $2,000 payouts amid COVID-19.
Most recently, the president is coming under fire for an apparent violation of his vow not to increase taxes on Americans earning less than $400,000 per year.
As the New York Post reported, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki admitted on Wednesday that this is not actually the case under Biden’s current plan.
“One single penny”
As a candidate, Biden promised time and again that his administration would not raise taxes on the middle class.
“If you make less than $400,000, you won’t see one single penny in additional federal tax,” the president reiterated earlier this month with regard to his upcoming tax plan, according to the New York Post.
As it turns out, however, there is a big caveat that Psaki acknowledged during a recent press conference. The $400,000 threshold applies to families — not individuals.
Of course, a decreasing number of households subsist on one income anymore, which means that couples earning $200,000 each are liable to be on the receiving end of a significant tax hike. In fact, analysis shows that the expected rate increase is set to be the first major federal hike in roughly three decades.
“Democratic pipe dreams”
Some critics in the media have argued that there might be some poetic justice to the situation if progressive corporations pitched in to help fund Biden’s agenda, but it appears that will not be the case.
As columnist Kipp Jones wrote: “Corporate America helped promote the country’s neo-Marxist, race-obsessed ‘equality’ revolution/movement all of last year and throughout this year. Why not let them all fund Democratic pipe dreams for a while?”
Instead, Biden, who has long portrayed himself as a friend to the middle-class union worker, appears poised to come after regular people who have managed to earn a decent living.
Even his critics might credit him for his creative use of words, though. For example, when migrants are being dropped off in U.S. cities in the dead of night, he refers to it as a “challenge” but not a “crisis.”
For those trying to parse the president’s words for their true meaning, however, there is likely one prevailing question: Which promise will Biden break next?