Home Depot Co-Founder: Joe Biden Tax Plan Would Put Middle Class ‘in Peril’

Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone said Wednesday that Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden’s tax plan would put the middle class “in peril.”

Langone appeared on the Fox Business show Mornings with Maria on Wednesday, saying that middle class families will feel the pinch of Biden’s tax plan even though Biden had claimed the wealthy would pay more in taxes and that the tax code should be more equitable and progressive.

“I don’t know if there’s any of us that have done well that will have a problem with paying more taxes, but it’s a ruse to think that hitting us and us alone is going to get the job done,” Langone said. “It won’t and the middle class will be in peril and when you take money out of the hands of the middle class, you do a dramatic impact negatively on the economy.”

“The middle class will not be exempt,” he added. “Tragically, it will punish them. It isn’t going to punish us.”

Biden would repeal the changes made to individual income tax rates for people making more than $400,000 a year, meaning the highest tax bracket would be 39.6 percent, up from 37 percent.

The former vice president also wants to make capital gains taxes at the same rate as income taxes for households earning more than $1 million.

Langone pointed out that the economic recovery from the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic is doing well so far.

According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. economy added 661,000 jobs in September, and the unemployment rate fell to 7.9 percent from 8.4 percent.

The Tax Policy Center estimates that Biden’s plan would increase federal revenue by $4 trillion from 2021 to 2030, but it would also disproportionally raise taxes on the top quintile of income earners.