By Bryan Mark Weber

Government just can’t keep its hands off other people’s money.

That’s true for individuals and corporations. With our soaring national debt, one might think those in power would be thinking of ways to increase competition and spark productivity. Instead, President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen don’t think American companies are paying their fair share, so they’re pushing a global tax that’ll force companies to pay more no matter where they do business.

Former President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress cut corporate taxes from 35%, one of the highest rates in the world, to 21%, which meant America was more competitive than it had been for years. But that could change if this new agreement is implemented. Biden wants to raise the rate up to 28%.

The Left’s fear that countries would lower their taxes to remain competitive is one of the driving factors in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s plan for a global minimum tax on corporations.

The scope is huge. Some 136 countries have signed onto the plan, which would have major implications for large multinational companies all over the world representing perhaps 90% of the global economy. Don’t let Biden’s mouthpiece, Jen Psaki, fool you: Companies do pass on taxes to consumers.

The political agenda here is crystal clear.

“Democrats want to raise the federal corporate rate back above the global average again, to 26.5 percent,” National Review’s editors write. “Since states also levy corporate taxes, the average corporate-tax rate for the U.S. would be 30.9 percent, which would be third-highest in the OECD, trailing only Colombia and Portugal. The Biden administration has made great play of the importance it attaches to competition when it is agitating for an aggressive antitrust policy, but that enthusiasm mysteriously wanes when it comes to taxation.”

And there’s another issue: The Constitution expressly places the power of taxation in the hands of Congress, not the president or treasury secretary. Additionally, only the Senate can approve international treaties. Predictably, the Biden administration is looking for a way to bypass checks on presidential power. There’s only one way to accurately characterize what’s taking place, and that’s a cartel.

The 15% tax seems arbitrary, but let’s just assume economists believe it will benefit businesses. Why not cap individual taxes at 15% instead of raising the individual rate to 39.6%, which rises to more than 60% in some locations when combined with local and state taxes? If a 15% cap will drive the global economy, let’s apply that to all Americans.

But we all know when a new tax is proposed, it’s just the beginning.

That’s why countries such as Ireland insisted that the proposed 15% global tax be a cap, not a minimum. In other words, Ireland’s government knows the deal was a trap to increase the rate down the road and make countries less competitive. Other countries insisted on similar concessions.

This is nothing more than a global power grab designed to reduce the influence of freely elected governments and minimize the ability of their citizens to build wealth. Governments and businesses should be free to compete with one another instead of being strapped down by international regulations, but that could all change.

Raising taxes as part of an international cabal is designed to make it more appealing. The editorial board of The Wall Street Journal explains, “Democrats want to impose much higher U.S. taxes on American companies’ profits at home and abroad, and they think the pill will be easier to force down if lawmakers think other countries are following with tax increases of their own.”

Now this global tax scheme heads to the governments of the countries that pledged to put it into effect, and the U.S. Congress ought to do its constitutional duty and stop it. No one will benefit from this latest attempt to destroy Liberty and prosperity except the global cartel that’s pushing the new tax.