Our Tax Code is Broken and President Obama Wants to Fix It
Our current tax code — largely inherited from the Bush administration, except for the places where Obama cut taxes for the middle class and small businesses — is broken, rigged for the rich and has exploded our debt while dragging our economy down. Today, President Obama released his budget for 2013 and it includes some hugely important changes that will make the tax code simpler, fairer, and better for our economy.
Here’s the FIVE most important tax proposals the President put forward today:
- The Buffett Rule: While Republicans show no signs of stopping their all-out push to protect the wealthiest Americans at all costs, the president is doubling down on his commitment to make sure that no millionaire pays a lower tax rate than middle class workers. President Obama’s budget underscores his State of the Union call for a minimum 30 percent tax rate for millionaires.
- Gets Rid of the Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich, Once and For All: The Bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year anyway, but the president’s budget makes clear that we must get rid of the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. The Bush tax cuts ushered in record income inequality and the worst job growth in decades and, as the President’s Budget says, they “were unfair and unaffordable at the time they were enacted and remain so today.” Getting rid of them and returning the estate tax to its still hugely generous 2009 level would save a whopping $968 BILLION over the next ten years.
- Gets Rid of Unfair Tax Loopholes for Hedge Fund and Private Equity Managers: One of the many reasons that Mitt Romney pays such an outrageously low tax rate is because of the so-called “carried interest” loophole — a special and unfair tax break available only to hedge fund and private equity managers. Getting rid of this wasteful and economically unjustifiable giveaway to the wealthy will save $13 BILLION over 10 years.
- Gets Rid of Unfair Tax Rates on Dividends for the Wealthiest 2 Percent of Americans: The very wealthiest Americans take in an overwhelming share of the capitals gains, dividends, and interest income earned in this country. Taxing just the dividends earned by only the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans at the same rate as ordinary income would bring in $206 BILLION in new revenue over the next ten years.
- Ends Tax Giveaways to Big Oil: The budget repeats the president’s longstanding commitment to ending wasteful, taxpayer-funded giveaways to the most profitable industry in history. With gas prices soaring to near-record levels, it’s time to end the $41 BILLION in handouts that Big Oil would receive over the next ten years.
IN ONE SENTENCE: The first step toward building an economy that works for everyone is making everyone, especially the very wealthiest Americans, start paying their fair share — and that’s what the president’s budget sets out to do.
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