Biden criticizes Republican plan to extend Trump’s tax cuts for the ultrawealthy

President Joe Biden on April 15 criticized a recent Republican proposal that would extend the tax cuts for wealthy individuals and large corporations that became law under former President Donald Trump.

“The way to make the tax code fair is to make big corporations and the very wealthy begin to pay their share,” Biden said in a social media post on Tax Day, the deadline for filing federal income taxes.

In a statement released by the White House, the Biden administration criticized House Republicans for continuing to “side with the wealthy and big corporations” on tax policy.

Biden has proposed several tax policies in his 2025 budget proposal, including increasing the Child Tax Credit to assist the families of an estimated 66 million children; making Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) tax credits for insurance premiums permanent; and expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, which would help families earning under $64,000 per year.

Biden has called for an increase in the corporate tax rate to 27% from the current 21% rate set by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Biden’s proposal would also raise the tax rates for the largest earners, which were cut under Trump, and would require people whose net worth is over $100 million to pay tax at a rate of at least 25% on their income and to use capital gains and other sources of income that are exempted from consideration under current tax law in calculating their taxable amounts.

The White House contrasted Biden’s focus on assisting middle-class earners with the budget proposed by the Republican Study Committee, a group made up of 179 of the 218 members of the current House majority.

The committee’s proposal, titled “Fiscal Sanity to Save America,” calls for making the tax cuts for large corporations and wealthy individuals passed under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent. Trump signed that law in December 2017.

According to analysis conducted by the Tax Policy Center, making these cuts permanent would result in an average tax cut of over $175,000 for people earning over $4.5 million per year, the top 0.1% of earners. Those earning more than $1 million would get a cut of nearly $49,000.

The White House criticized the committee for proposing additional tax cuts for large businesses and calling for the elimination of the estate tax, which only affects individuals with over $13.6 million in assets.

The Republican plan would also undo the 15% minimum tax for large corporations that was included in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act Biden signed.

“While cutting taxes for billionaires, the extreme Republican budget would make devastating cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and other programs hardworking Americans count on, and raise taxes on millions of middle-class families,” the White House said in a statement.

Four Republicans in the Wisconsin congressional delegation are members of the Republican Study Committee. They are Reps. Scott Fitzgerald, Glenn Grothman, Bryan Steil, and Tom Tiffany.

The Trump tax policy was touted as a way to stimulate the economy when it was being debated in Congress.

“This huge tax cut will be rocket fuel for our economy,” Trump said in a September 2017 speech, and declared that “the era of economic surrender is over.”

Later that year, Trump predicted that annual economic growth “could go to 4, 5 and maybe even 6%” as a result of his economic policies. But those gains failed to materialize.

Economic growth under Biden has significantly outpaced growth under Trump. Under Biden, the economy has grown at an average of 3.4% per year, while under Trump the average was 1.8%.“The [George W.] Bush and Trump tax cuts were irresponsible, given our substantial underinvestment in high-value areas, the retirement of baby boomers, rising health care costs, and potential national security threats,” the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities concluded in a March 2024 report.