Today, as Congressional Republicans prepare to advance their tax bill, Tax the Greedy Billionaires (TGB) and Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) released an interested parties memo highlighting how a millionaire surtax would allow Congress to protect middle-class and low-income Americans from devastating cuts to key social programs, while extending tax cuts for millions of hardworking low- and middle-income households.

Congressional Republicans’ tax legislation will slash a range of programs that support working Americans to carve out major tax giveaways for the wealthy all while exploding the deficit. This is deeply unpopular – even among conservatives: A recent Morning Consult poll found that 70% of Republicans believed “the wealthiest Americans should pay higher taxes,” up from 62% six years ago. Republicans are scrambling to balance the politics of prioritizing the wealthy over the working class and bring down the cost of the package ahead of tomorrow’s expected committee mark-up.

Taxing the ultra-wealthy is so popular, even Donald Trump has floated the possibility of doing just that. An updated score released this week by the Yale Budget Lab, combined with new analysis of the costs of extending the Trump tax cuts, proves that Congress can extend tax cuts for the middle class without adding one penny to the deficit or hurting regular Americans by imposing a modest surcharge on taxes owed by the ultra-rich:

• The Budget Lab finds that a surtax along the lines proposed by Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Rep. Don Beyer in recent Congresses would raise $1.5 trillion over the next ten years.

• New analysis from the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy (ITEP) finds that the cost of extending the 2017 tax cuts for households with incomes up to $300,000 for married couples filing jointly ($250,000 for individuals) is $1.374 trillion over that same period.

Moreover, taxing the wealthy tackles the extreme wealth concentration threatening the American dream, which has driven up costs on everything from health care to housing, fueled the loneliness epidemic, and more. Lawmakers have an absolute obligation to chip away at the out-of-control economic power of the wealthy by promoting policies that prevent them from accumulating huge sums at our expense.

“A millionaire surtax is not only common sense but good politics. With this measure alone, Congress could protect middle-class and working-class Americans from inconceivable and deeply damaging cuts to critical programs like Medicaid while extending tax cuts for working families,” said David Kass, ATF Executive Director. “When over 70% of Republicans support higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy, this policy not only drives consensus with Americans across the spectrum—it would raise $1.5 trillion that could fund critical public investments while protecting households earning up to $300,000.”

“Congress has a moral duty to tackle the extreme concentration of wealth threatening our democracy, economy, and climate. Doing so will break up extreme wealth and rebalance our economy to empower hardworking Americans,” said TGB Campaign Director Igor Volsky. “The data is clear: Even a modest millionaire surtax more than pays for the cost of extending middle class tax cuts, all while safeguarding funding for health care, education, food assistance or other services that benefit hard-working Americans.”

For more information about the Tax the Greedy Billionaires campaign, visit taxgreed.org/ or email media@taxgreed.org.