Biden Cabinet Picks Support Steep Soda Tax and $2 Trillion Carbon Tax

By Craig Bannister | December 1, 2020 | 2:57pm EST


Joe Biden (Screenshot)

At least two of presidential heir apparent Joe Biden’s cabinet picks support burdensome new taxes.
Biden’s choice to head up the Office of Management and Budget (OBM), Neera Tandemn, has voiced support for two different costly soda tax proposals that would hit low-income Americans the hardest, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) analysis reveals:
If one of these sugary drink taxes were imposed, it could result in a 55 to 67 cent tax on a 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola. A single 2 liter bottle of Coca-Cola costs anywhere from $1.25 to $1.70, so this tax could total 50 percent of the cost of the product. With the Tanden soda tax burden, the cost of a 12-pack of soda could increase by $1.11 to $1.44.
A tax on sugary drinks would also be extremely regressive and disproportionately harm low-income Americans. In fact, according to a 2018 report from the Tax Foundation, 47 percent of the tax collections from a sugary drink excise tax would come from households with income under $50,000.


Biden’s pick for Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, is a founding member of the Climate Leadership Council, a group lobbying Congress to pass a national carbon tax. As ATR reports, such a carbon tax would cost Americans more than two trillion dollars over the next ten years, while sharply raising the average American’s energy costs:
According to an internal report conducted by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Presidential Campaign, a near-identical model of CLC's carbon tax plan “would generate $219 billion a year, on average, between 2020 and 2030.” The same internal report also concluded a $42/ton carbon tax “increases gasoline prices by roughly 40 cents per gallon” and found “average household energy costs would increase by roughly $480 per year.”
Yellen says she’s counting on “the combination of social injustices exposed by the coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests, and wildfires in California” to boost support for her climate tax plan, Reuters reported in an interview published last October. The tax would also help “readjust” an American society “where capitalism is beginning to run amok,” Yellen told Reuters.

Biden Cabinet Picks Support Steep Soda Tax and $2 Trillion Carbon Tax | CNSNews