Democrats More Likely to Chip Away at the GOP Tax Cuts Than Repeal Them
Taxes

Democrats More Likely to Chip Away at the GOP Tax Cuts Than Repeal Them

Aaron Josefczyk

While some Democratic presidential candidates have talked about repealing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in full, Bloomberg’s Laura Davison says that if the balance of power in Washington shifts in 2020, the more likely course of events would be a slow but steady rolling back of the 2017 tax law’s provisions.

Democrats are debating ambitious policies that call for significant new funding sources, and the tax cuts are being treated as a piggy bank of sorts that could help pay for everything from efforts to fight climate change to new tax credits for low-income workers, Davison reports.

One of the prime targets is the corporate tax rate, which Republicans lowered to 21% and many Democrats would like to raise to 28%. The top individual tax rate is another focus, with some Democrats talking about raising it from 37% to 39.6%, where it was before the tax new law, and others proposing much higher tax rates for the wealthiest.

Speaking to a clergy-led led group Monday, former Vice President Joe Biden said he would like to roll back parts of the GOP tax law to pay for free community college and universal access to Medicaid.

“We have the greatest income inequality in the ... United States of America since 1902. The fact here is, there is plenty of money to go around,” Biden said, according to Roll Call. “This isn’t about punishment ... this is just plain fairness. Simple, basic fairness and we have all the money we need to do it.”

TOP READS FROM THE FISCAL TIMES