As Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) labor toward a possible summertime agreement on a filibuster-proof tax, energy and prescription drugs bill, the Democratic Party is reckoning with its long-term political position on taxes. For more than a decade, Democrats campaigned on raising rates on high earners and large corporations, arguing the GOP is the party of tax cuts for the top 1 percent.
Yet as Democrats near the climax of their monthslong push to unilaterally raise those taxes, there’s real division in the party over both how to talk about tax increases and whether to pursue them at all. Already some House moderates are balking at any tax increases in the bill, and Republicans are revving up a campaign that will hit Democrats for raising any taxes.
“I don’t think tax increases would be popular,” said Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.), one of the party’s most endangered House incumbents. But she added: “Let’s see what the Senate gives us.”
There’s relatively broad agreement on using any party-line bill to increase taxes on some high earning Americans who run so-called pass through businesses to pay for Medicare solvency. But Democrats are undecided on including a proposed surtax on people making more than $10 million and an increase in minimum taxes on large corporations. And Manchin says he won’t support any tax increases that aggravate inflation.
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