President Joe Biden and other Democratic leaders have been pushing a massive $3.5 trillion spending package while claiming that it would be paid for by hikes to the corporate and capital gains tax rates.
Recent reports, however, indicate they are actually considering a number of other tax increases to help foot the bill.
Various new taxes hikes under consideration
Democrats previously signaled plans to raise the corporate tax rate by seven percentage points and the top income tax rate to 39.6%. The president has also advocated for raising the capital gains tax burden on households earning more than $1 million.
According to the Washington Examiner, there are several additional proposals currently on the table.
One such plan would impose an annual tax on billionaires and another would tax companies based on their respective ratios of executive pay to average employee income.
Another idea reportedly involves removing tax breaks for oil and gas companies as well as taxes for virgin plastic materials.
Other proposals include placing an excise tax on stock buybacks and cutting back on corporate deductions for executive salaries.
Limitations of budget reconciliation process
On top of those ideas, the Examiner reports that Democratic lawmakers hope to “crack down on ways that people avoid paying estate taxes, such as grantor-retained annuity trusts and intentionally defective grantor trusts.”
The bottom line appears to be that the Biden administration is currently considering many more tax hikes than the president initially acknowledged.
Such revelations might not come as a surprise to opponents of the $3.5 trillion bill, which Democrats want to pass through the budget reconciliation process that would negate the need for any GOP support.
As a condition of that process, however, Democrats would not be permitted to add more than $1.75 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, hence the need to find other ways to pay for much of the bill.
Although the reconciliation process would allow the proposal to pass with a simple majority, even that might be a problem in an evenly divided Senate. For his part, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) recently indicated that he would not be supporting the bill in its current form, which would be enough to derail the entire plan.
The post Democrats consider various tax hikes to pay for $3.5 trillion spending package: Report first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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