House Republicans, led by MAGA extremist Speaker Mike Johnson, have proposed a “debt commission” to tackle what they’re calling a “debt crisis.” Republicans want to blame “spending” for the debt, but in reality it was their tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that starved us of revenue and added trillions to the deficit. A Republican debt commission is unlikely to examine revenue-raising options like closing tax loopholes used by rich people and wealthy corporations. Instead it will likely focus on cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, healthcare, housing, education and other vital services, while protecting and expanding tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. Raising revenues is central to any responsible effort to fund public services that families need and to reduce the deficit.

• Tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations have been a primary driver of debts in recent years.
  • The Republican tax cuts enacted under Presidents Bush and Trump have added over $10 trillion to the national debt since 2001.
  • Those tax cuts—which overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and corporations—are responsible for 57% of the increase in the debt this century.
• Even as MAGA Republicans are calling for a service-cutting debt commission, the party is trying to permanently extend Trump tax cuts, which will disproportionately benefit the wealthy and add almost $4 trillion to the national debt.
• The Trump tax cuts mostly benefiting the wealthy were the biggest cause of the increase in the deficit this past year. While spending decreased, revenue decreased even more.
  
• The right way to address public debt is to raise taxes on rich people and wealthy corporations. 
• The Republican debt commission is unlikely to address the trillions of dollars of loopholes in our tax code, many of which go exclusively to the rich and wealthy corporations.
• American families are already struggling with higher prices driven up by corporate greed—they shouldn’t have to also suffer a reduction in the public services that help them get by and get ahead.
• Instead of creating a debt commission that will try to cut public services like Social Security and Medicare behind closed doors, Republicans in Congress should stop pushing cut taxes for rich people and wealthy corporations.
• President Biden and Democrats in Congress have already enacted reforms to make the biggest corporations pay a minimum tax each year and to crack down on tax cheating by the rich that robs us of billions of dollars in revenue every year.
• Biden and the Democrats have more plans to ensure rich households and wealthy corporations pay a fairer share of taxes to help bring down debt, including taxing billionaires—some of whom pay nothing in some years—on their biggest sources of income.
  • President Biden’s 2023 budget proposed raising nearly $5 trillion by making the wealthy and corporations pay more of their fair share in taxes.