The Biden administration hopes it can seal a deal soon on its social safety net program
President Joe Biden and Congressional Democratic leaders are reportedly scaling back their visions of tax hikes on the rich and corporations, but whether that ultimately translates into a win for the wealthy is an open question, according to tax experts.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona is one critical vote and she is reportedly against proposed rate increases that would send the top personal income tax rate from 37% to 39.6% or a corporate income tax rate from its current 21% spot, the Wall Street Journal reported. For example, more than half of U.S. adults said they are bothered “a lot” that wealthy people and corporations don’t pay their perceived fair share in taxes, according to a Pew Research Center poll released in April. Breaking into party affiliations, three quarters of Democrats and almost four in 10 Republicans feel that way, the survey showed.
As for Democrats’ ideas about raising tax rates, Allison Schrager, senior fellow at the right-leaning Manhattan Institute, has her doubts that any rate increases would actually have put the screws to rich taxpayers and corporate balance sheets. Pensions accounted for 63% of the wealth from the bottom 90% of households, researchers said in the study earlier this week.