Biden is finally going to tax the rich by how much?!
President Joe Biden is planning to raise taxes among America’s richest earners to help keep Medicare solvent according to his 2024 budget proposal announced on March 7th.
“In his plan,” wrote Chris Megerian and Josh Boak of the Associated Press, “Biden is overtly declaring that the wealthy ought to shoulder a heavier tax burden.”
“His budget would draw a direct line between those new taxes and the popular health insurance program for people older than 65,” Megerian and Boak continued.
Biden’s plan would essentially be like “asking those who’ve fared best in the economy to subsidize the rest of the population,” the Associated Press journalists added.
Under Biden’s new plan, America’s richest would see an increase from 3.8% to 5% on earned and unearned income that was above $400,000 according to the President.
Biden said his new tax would not only help reduce America’s burgeoning budget but also keep Medicare solvent until 2050.
“The budget I am releasing this week will make the Medicare trust fund solvent beyond 2050 without cutting a penny in benefits,” Biden wrote in New York Times essay published on March 7th entitled: 'My Plan to Extend Medicare for Another Generation.'
“This modest increase in Medicare contributions from those with the highest incomes will help keep the Medicare program strong for decades to come,” Biden added.
House Republicans were quick to denounce Biden’s proposed tax increase with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell saying the budget would “not see the light of day.”
But Biden’s new tax on earned and unearned income pales in comparison to the adjustment he proposed on taxing the country’s richest billionaires.
The President’s budget plan called for a blanket 25% minimum tax hike on Americans “with wealth of more than $100 million” to address income inequalities between the country’s wealthiest citizens and those in the middle and lower classes.
Biden would also set the corporate tax rate at 28% and repeal much of former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, “restoring the top tax rate of 39.6 percent.”
Biden’s budget plan also proposed closing certain tax loopholes that benefit crypto investors and would quadruple the tax on stock buybacks in order to “encourage corporations to invest in productivity and the broader economy.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called Biden’s budget proposal “completely unserious” and said the United States government’s problem wasn’t in its revenue generation.
“He proposes trillions in new taxes that you and your family will pay directly or through higher costs,” McCarthy wrote in a March 9th Tweet.
“Mr. President: Washington has a spending problem, NOT a revenue problem,” the House Speaker added, though still has yet to bring forth a counter-proposal.
It’s unlikely according to Sara Dorn of Forbes, who said that Republicans would likely “balk at any new taxes,” instead we should see Biden’s proposal as the starting point of what will be one of the most important budget negotiations America has ever had.