Kass Discusses Trump-GOP Tax Law, Biden-Harris Tax Plan, Billionaire Taxation & More With Democratic, Republican & Independent Callers to ‘Washington Journal’

WASHINGTON – Proving tax policy is an important and popular topic among the American people, Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) executive director David Kass recently fielded questions on the subject from callers from across the nation and political spectrum on the C-SPAN program “Washington Journal”.  

Among the points he made: 

• On the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law: “What did the Republicans say was going to happen with that bill? They said it would pay for itself. They said that workers’ wages would go up, and business investment would increase. I don’t think any of those things have happened. It has been an expensive failure.” 
• On Project 2025: “[Around taxes], the biggest thing Project 2025 would do is raise taxes on the middle class and cut taxes on the wealthy.”
• On billionaire taxation: “There are really two tax systems. If you are a nurse or a firefighter, you pay taxes every two weeks. If you are a billionaire, you can pay almost nothing in taxes.”
• On restored IRS funding: “Customer service has improved dramatically. The IRS has gone after these wealthy people who have not paid their taxes. From millionaires who owed money, the IRS has already collected $1 billion. That is what happens when you give the IRS the tools to do its job.”
• On the Biden-Harris pledge not to raise taxes on middle class: “That $400,000 pledge is a very important one. Anyone making less than $400,000 a year, their taxes are not going to go up, not even a penny. For those who make more, they would be asked to pay their fair share. So, the idea is that the wealthy and big corporations should pay additional taxes...The rich and big corporations don’t need more tax cuts, we should let those [parts of the Trump-GOP tax law] expire.” 
• On raising the corporate tax rate: “Corporations got this huge tax cut, 40%, and after that, stock buybacks went to record levels. That is when a corporation buys its own stock back. Why do they do that? It raises the price of the stock and makes the people who own it, the ceos and other rich investors, wealthier. That is where a lot of the money has actually gone from these corporate tax cuts: stock buybacks…. What is interesting, though, is that a number of republicans even are saying it needs to be raised a little bit. So I think there is some bipartisan interest in making the corporate rate go back up.”

On “No taxes on tips” proposal: “97% of low wage workers do not get tips, so it impacts very few low-wage workers. There are a few ways that would be much better help. The first one is raising the minimum wage – that would have a big impact. Also, helping workers to be part of unions. Finally these pro-worker tax credits, the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit. Those three things would have a bigger impact than this proposal.”