Congress Should Make The Wealthiest Pay Their Fair Share

In 2017 Republicans passed a massive $2 trillion tax cut heavily slanted towards large corporations and the very rich. Many provisions of that law are scheduled to expire at the end of 2025, but Trump is promising his big-dollar donors that he will extend their tax handouts, as are Congressional Republicans. Congress must not cut taxes for the wealthy and well-connected while the most vulnerable Americans get left behind.

Trump-GOP Tax Law Was A Failure for the Economy

1. Republicans claimed their tax cuts would benefit the middle class. But the top 1% receive on average a $61,000 tax cut, the top 0.1% each get $252,000, while the bottom 60% of families benefit by less than $1.25 per day.

2. After slashing the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, Republicans promised companies would boost workers’ wages and jobs. What actually happened was corporations went on a massive stock- buyback spending spree, gave their executives huge bonuses, and kept worker wages flat.

3. Republicans promised “small businesses” would benefit from their tax law, especially from a new “pass-through loophole.” However, the top 1% of business owners received over half of the tax benefit from the loophole. Just seven billionaires were able to take a $535 million tax deduction in a single year.

4. Republicans promised that the tax cuts would pay for themselves. Instead, deficits exploded under their watch. Republicans are now trying to use those deficits as an excuse to slash trillions of dollars from Social Security, Medicare, and other programs that support communities.

Extending Trump-GOP Tax Law Would Primarily Benefit the Wealthy & Is Bad Politics

1. If made permanent, the Trump-GOP tax law would reduce revenue by $4.3 trillion over 10 years, almost half of which—$1.9 trillion—would go to corporations and households with incomes over $400,000. 

2. That $1.9 trillion would be enough to provide every child free preschool and childcare, every parent paid family leave, and every student free public college, with billions of dollars left over. Not only are these policies more popular than tax cuts for the rich, they would benefit the economy to a much greater extent. 

3. Americans across the political spectrum oppose more tax cuts for the rich. In fact, 79% of voters want to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations, including 63% of Republican voters. 

We Should Raise Not Cut Taxes on the Wealthy and Big Corporations

1. Congress should not extend any Trump-GOP tax cuts for households with over $400,000 of annual income. Instead, we should be raising taxes on the wealthy and large corporations to fund programs supporting  working families, while also reducing the debt.

2. Congress should also reinstate the corporate tax rate back to 35%, tax wealth like work so more of the income of the very wealthy is taxed through a billionaire tax, strengthen international corporate tax provisions to remove the incentives for offshoring American jobs, and permanently restore adequate funding for the IRS so it can crack down on rampant tax evasion by wealthy households and big corporations.