White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki Refuses to Acknowledge Economic Reality Because She Thinks It’s Mean
"In the past, companies have passed on these costs to consumers,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. “We feel that that’s unfair and absurd."
So... Let me get this straight. Government increases the cost of doing business and this is supposed to be done without changing anything else? Market forces no longer apply? I would say this is one of the most economically ignorant statements I have ever heard but then we hear so many from government officials.
If you raise the cost of doing business then businesses raise prices...or find some way to cut costs which may include reducing the number of employees (or hours or salary, etc.). There is no secret magic here. It's easy to look at the salary of a CEO and think of that as a really huge number. However, generally speaking, it is a drop in an ocean when it comes to total costs for a business. You can't pay for tax increases by slashing the salary of a CEO...at least not enough of them to be noticeable. Also, despite the value a company may have on paper, in many cases profit margins aren't actually very large in percentage terms. A small shift in costs vs. profits can be disastrous if not corrected.
No matter what the government claims to want to happen, raising taxes on business will increase costs to consumers and/or affect employment. Or maybe government thinks that businesses can just print the money like they can?