Democrat Disarray

Democrats are scrambling to lock down a deal on Joe Biden's signature legislative agenda. Biden wants an agreement before he leaves for a major global climate change summit that starts Sunday because a big part of his agenda is a big down payment on the Green New Deal.

But Democrats can't even agree on what to call it. Sometimes it's the "Build Back Better" plan. Sometimes it's the massive $3.5 trillion "human infrastructure" or "social spending" plan. Sometimes it's the "reconciliation bill." 

Whatever they call it, however they package it, it's bad. Not only is it full of socialist spending and extreme environmental policies, it's also packed with quasi-amnesty provisions. 

But as I noted recently, the only thing stopping Democrats from getting it done is Democrat disagreements. It seemed Senate Democrats at least had an agreement on how to pay for it – a modified wealth tax on the unrealized capital gains of billionaires. 

I'm not suggesting that conservatives should fall on their swords for 700 billionaires. That doesn't make any sense. But as a principle, they should fight the idea that the government can tax a gain you haven't realized yet. 

Here's what most Senate Democrats want to do: Suppose someone buys stock for $100 and it doubles to $200. You've made an unrealized gain of $100. You don't actually have that extra $100 cash yet, because you haven't sold it. Thus, the term "unrealized gain." 

In no way, shape or form is it income. But Democrats want to tax that $100 gain – even though the stock hasn't been sold yet. This idea would likely force the sale of stocks just to pay the tax on the unrealized gain. 

And it's not limited to just stocks. They want to tax business investments, real estate and other assets, maybe even works of art.

Again, I'm not suggesting billionaires can't afford to pay more. But this is a crazy way to go about it, and it's likely unconstitutional.

As it turns out, not all Democrats are on board with this approach. Sen. Joe Manchin said he "didn't like it," adding that it was "targeting different people" and "very convoluted."  He's right about that! 

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, who is in charge of writing tax bills in the House, doesn't like the idea either. 

And the disagreements don't end there. There are renewed skirmishes between the Democrat Party's warring factions over exactly what priorities will be included in the final bill.