Soak the Rich

Granted, I’d prefer far higher tax increases on the rich than Biden is proposing. But this is a solid start to reverse a half-century of giving tax breaks to the people who can most afford to pay up:

The centerpiece of the tax increases would probably be a higher corporate tax rate — reversing part of President Donald Trump’s steep corporate tax cut in 2017 — as well as higher levies on investment income and a higher top marginal tax rate.

President Biden’s tax increases may prove among the most controversial elements of the administration’s coming “Build Back Better” agenda, setting up a major confrontation with business groups and congressional Republicans.

The president has said his tax increases will not affect people earning less than $400,000 per year. He and his advisers have called for funding the next major domestic priority with higher levies on wealthy Americans, citing the relative success enjoyed by the affluent during a pandemic that has pummeled the economic fortunes of the working class. Almost all of the president’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan was financed by adding to the federal debt.

…

The tax increases in the plan are similarly divided between those two parts. The infrastructure section of the legislation is expected to be funded primarily by taxes on businesses, according to the officials.

The key measures under discussion include raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent; increasing the global minimum tax paid from about 13 percent to 21 percent; ending federal subsidies for fossil fuel companies; and forcing multinational corporations to pay the U.S. tax rate rather than the lower rates paid by their foreign subsidiaries, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters not yet public.

Let this be the first of many, many, many tax increases on the wealthy. The government should be outright expropriating their assets.