Joe Biden to Fight for Tax Hikes in 2024 Budget: ‘I’m Gonna Raise Some Taxes’
President Joe Biden will fight to force taxpayers to pay even more corporate taxes in next week’s 2024 proposed budget, which is likely to impact both large and small businesses.
Although the business term “corporation” is widely associated with large companies like Chevron, Berkshire Hathaway, and McDonald’s, C-corporations can be both large and small businesses.
According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), 31.7 million small businesses exist in the United States. Eighty-one percent, or 25.7 million, have no employees (run and operated by a single person) and 19 percent, or 6 million, have paid employees.
The SBA also estimates that small businesses account for 65.1 percent (10.5 million) of net new job created from 2000 to 2019 and comprise 99.7 percent of firms with paid employees.
In mid-March, Biden will issue a proposed budget to Congress that will likely include tax increases on small businesses, intended to reduce the deficit from massive government overspending.
“I want to make it clear: I’m gonna raise some taxes,” Biden said in Virginia Beach on Tuesday.
Biden also mentioned raising taxes on corporations during the State of the Union Address. “And I will pay for the ideas I’ve talked about… by making the wealthy and big corporations begin to pay their fair share.”
It is unknown if Biden will tailor his proposal to only impact big businesses that have the resources to avoid as many taxes as possible.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) claimed Wednesday that Democrats believe the Trump administration tax cuts for both large and small corporations were bad for the economy. “There’s close to unanimity if not unanimity in our caucus that the Trump tax cuts were extremely bad for the country,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks to reporters during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
As many Democrats believe taxes should be increased on taxpayers, others fear raising them would hurt their political chances in battleground swing states, such as in the states of Sen Joe Manchin (D-WV), Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH).
“I don’t know what he’s going to raise taxes on, that’s critical,” Tester responded when asked about Biden’s tax increase promises.
“If it’s about tax equity we’ll take a look at it. If it’s about across-the-board tax increases for everybody it’s probably the wrong time to do it because of inflation,” he added.
Raising taxes on small businesses would likely impact 31.7 million small businesses and their prospects of hiring and employing workers — many of whom vote.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
GOP Looks To Flip the Script, Attack Dems for 'Slashing' Benefits to Seniors
$2 million ad buy from McCarthy-aligned PAC targets 14 swing congressional districts
As President Joe Biden accuses Republicans of wanting to cut Social Security, Republican leadership is working to flip the script, arguing in a new ad campaign that it's Democrats who are slashing benefits to seniors.
American Action Network, an outside spending group aligned with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), launched the $2 million effort Wednesday. The ads, which will run in 14 congressional districts, accuse Biden of "breaking his promise to 30 million seniors" by proposing benefit cuts to Medicare Advantage, a private alternative to Medicare. The Biden administration in February proposed changes to Medicare Advantage's payment policies—changes that would cost seniors $540 a year in benefits, according to one study.
The ad campaign comes just weeks after Biden used his Feb. 7 State of the Union address to attack "some Republicans" for wanting "Social Security and Medicare to sunset," a line that prompted live pushback from McCarthy and others in his party. It also shows that Republicans plan to bring the fight over benefit cuts to Biden. While McCarthy and other Republican leaders have long rebuffed accusations from the president that they want to cut Medicare and Social Security, Wednesday's ad campaign takes the squabble a step further, with Republicans now working to pin benefit cuts on Democrats.
"Joe Biden and his liberal friends in Congress are talking out of both sides of their mouth: promising to protect Medicare while pushing benefit cuts for seniors," American Action Network president Dan Conston said in a statement. "Each and every liberal in Congress needs to speak out now and stop Biden's cuts to Medicare benefits before it's too late."
The network's attempt to go on offense on benefit cuts is likely to prompt pushback from the White House, which has denied that its Medicare Advantage proposal constitutes a "cut." "Any claim that the administration is cutting Medicare is categorically false," Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra said last month.
No comments:
Post a Comment