Bernie Sanders assails Democratic ‘hypocrisy’ as the party edges closer to handing the rich a massive tax cut in Biden’s spending bill

https://www.yahoo.com/news/bernie-sanders-assails-democratic-hypocrisy-162124034.html

Bernie Sanders assails Democratic ‘hypocrisy’ as the party edges closer to handing the rich a massive tax cut in Biden’s spending bill

By Joseph Zeballos-Roig

November 18, 2021

Sanders says Dems risk charges of “hypocrisy” as they edge closer to handing the rich a tax break.

It’s bad policy, bad politics,” the Vermont senator told Politico.

Democrats are uneasy with efforts to provide a bigger state and local tax deduction for people in high-tax blue states.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is raising alarms that Democrats will be exposed to charges of hypocrisy due to a tax cut provision benefiting the wealthy in President Joe Biden’s spending bill.

“You can’t be a political party that talks about demanding the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes and then end up with a bill that gives large tax breaks to many millionaires,” Sanders told Politico. “You can’t do that. It’s bad policy, it’s bad politics.”

Sanders’ warning comes as Democrats become increasingly anxious with the largest slice of Biden’s social spending bill: a tax cut for rich Americans residing in high-tax, predominantly blue states.

The House is poised to approve a $1.75 trillion social spending bill that includes a measure lifting the amount of state and local taxes (SALT) that people can deduct from their federal tax bills to $80,000 from $10,000 through 2026. The $10,000 limit was imposed under President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax law.

Experts say lifting the SALT cap would overwhelmingly benefit richer Americans. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center projects most millionaires would be in line for a tax cut under the House Democratic proposal.

“This is giving them a better deal than they had even before 2017,” Brian Riedl, a budget expert at the right-leaning Manhattan Institute, told Insider. “They will have more benefits under Democrats than even Republicans gave them under President Trump.”

Other Democrats are uneasy with the SALT provision. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana told NBC News he wasn’t “a big fan” of the idea because “it gives tax breaks to the wrong people.”

“It would be preposterous if this legislation ends up cutting taxes for the wealthiest people in America,” Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado recently told Insider.

It’s also generating frustration in the House. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, a vulnerable Democrat in next year’s midterms, wrote on Twitter that SALT relief appeared like something Republicans would do instead.

https://twitter.com/RepGolden/status/1461099112603041792

If you’d told me a year ago that the second-biggest piece of a signature bill of this Congress was *$280 billion in tax giveaways to millionaires,* I’d have told you the Republicans were in charge.https://t.co/S6LHKNl3tm

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— Congressman Jared Golden (@RepGolden) November 17, 2021

“The fact that more people and orgs on the Democratic side aren’t up in arms about this is wild,” he wrote in a follow-up tweet.

Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia, a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means panel, told Insider it “absolutely” becomes more difficult for Democrats to tout the legislation to the public if it delivers a hefty tax cut to the rich.

“When you just do the math and you find out that most of it’s going to the very, very wealthy, it makes it harder to support,” Beyer said.

Sanders is spearheading negotiations design an alternate plan alongside Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey that would cut the level of tax benefits for the wealthy. They’re eyeing an income cap ranging between $500,000 and $550,000.