Does anyone out there still think all that "free" COVID money passed out by the government during the pandemic was really free?

Anyone who pays taxes is about to learn otherwise — that the COVID cash spending spree is about to be "paid for" through shriveling tax refund checks.

According to The Hill:

The IRS is warning taxpayers at the opening of the 2023 tax filing season that they should expect smaller refunds due to pandemic relief measures that have been allowed to expire. 

A big reason is that there were no stimulus payments from the government to people to help get them through the pandemic in 2022. The last stimulus payments went out in 2021. 

Millions received those stimulus payments as a recovery rebate credit that was effectively given as a tax refund. 

Millions more received help through the pandemic through an expanded child tax credit (CTC) that many progressives saw as an effective and important social safety net. That credit was allowed to expire by Congress at the end of 2021. 

"Due to tax law changes such as the elimination of the Advance Child Tax Credit and no Recovery Rebate Credit this year to claim pandemic-related stimulus payments, many taxpayers may find their refunds somewhat lower this year," the IRS said in a news release on Monday.

A tax break for charitable deductions was also allowed to expire, which could affect more taxpayers. 

This is wretched stuff.  Joe Biden has been out making political hay with laughable claims that only "the rich" earning more than $400,000 a year were ever going to see a hike in their tax bills.

It's another gaslight.  The expiry of tax credits and cash shovel-outs, and even charitable donations, is bound to leave Americans poorer come tax time.  How that's different from a tax hike is the difference between Coke and Pepsi.

As Biden bragged about Americans having more cash in their pockets and higher wages in hand on his watch, little did anyone know he was taking them away through tax-break expirations, meaning anyone thinking he was getting ahead was living in a fool's paradise.

Make no mistake: the COVID cash shovel-outs needed to come to an end, as do all government welfare handout programs.  The problem, of course, is that this comes as a shock to those who find themselves suddenly cut off.

Now they get higher tax bills, and less in their pocket, meaning less to spend against the headwinds of Bidenflation and a fattened and increasingly ravenous IRS that will be doing little-guy audits.

Slowly, surely, Joe Biden's economic gaslighting is catching up to him.  When tax day arrives, look for a drop in Joe's polling numbers.  He's not going to get away with fooling the public on a matter like this once the tax bill comes in.

Image: Monica Showalter.