Billionaires leave $160B hole in Biden’s plan
Companies like Amazon.com will pay a bit more tax, but the corporate world will take only a minor hit
President Joe Biden's $1.8 trillion social spending program won't quite pay for itself, the US Congressional Budget Office said on Thursday. But the $160 billion deficit, spread over 10 years, is a paltry amount compared with what could have been raised from raising taxes on the wealthy even slightly.
An example: notching up the personal income tax rate to 39.6% from 37% and lowering the amount at which it kicks in. That would have raised about $157 billion, the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation reckons. Throwing in a capital gains tax rate bump to 25% from 20% theoretically nets an additional $78 billion.
Companies like Amazon.com will pay a bit more tax, but the corporate world will take only a minor hit, thanks to the objections of centrists in Biden's own Democratic Party. Providing better childcare and tackling climate change are worth incurring a modest deficit, but if Congress had been bold enough to take a little back from American plutocrats , that wouldn't have been necessary.
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