Minority Report: Hardly settling — Part 3

Part 3: Biden’s tax plan is a big deal for the working class 

Under former Vice President Joe Biden’s tax plan, the rich will pay their fair share. Any accusation that Biden is a shill for mega corporations and the rich is erroneous. If you want fairer taxes for working-class Americans, you should vote for Biden in the November presidential election.

President Donald Trump lowered the corporate tax rate to 21 percent with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and suggested he might lower that rate to 20 percent if he wins reelection. 

In contrast, a primary feature of Biden’s plan is to raise the corporate tax rate from 21 to 28 percent. 

For those who are convinced Biden and Trump are equally bad and will serve corporate interests similarly, all the numbers oppose that position. 

If you want corporations to pay more in taxes, you should vote for the candidate who wants corporations to pay more taxes.

The most infuriating part about Trump’s tax cuts was how much of the benefits went to the richest Americans — they would receive 83 percent of all tax benefits. 

The Trump tax cuts were the kind of “Republican rich man’s tax bill” that former President Harry Truman loved to assail. I think the name has a nice ring to it. 

There have been plenty of Republican rich man’s tax bills passed over the years, and Trump’s tax cuts are the newest to the crew.

Fairer taxation means progressive taxation. Biden’s plan shows a clear commitment to fairness by reversing the most harmful parts of the Republican rich man’s tax bill of 2017. 

Biden will return the top marginal tax rate to 39.6 percent, where it was before the 2017 tax bill, and the handout to America’s top earners will end. 

Furthermore, Biden’s plan takes an ambitious approach to taxing those who make 1 one million dollars or more a year. 

Biden has made a big point of taxing the unearned income — investment or sales profit and dividends — of millionaires as if it were earned income at the top-39.6-percent rate. 

So, there is no more preferential treatment for those who live off their investment income. If passed, Biden’s increased taxation of unearned income would hit the rich where it hurts: their portfolios.

Another significant way Biden will fight for fairer taxes is by subjecting income above $400,000 to the 12.4 percent Social Security payroll tax, which is currently applied only to income levels below $137,700.

Such a tax increase on high earners is, as Biden said in 2010, “a big f—ing deal.” 

The Social Security payroll tax change will account for a $740-billion increase in revenue for the federal government over 10ten years, according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center. Overall, Biden’s tax plans have the potential to increase federal revenue by more than $2 trillion. 

Trillions of dollars more in revenue for the federal government, with the richest Americans bearing most of the burden, is hardly settling.

In fact, “increasing taxes by trillions of dollars” sounds similar to the kind of canned line Republicans love using on voters when telling them why they cannot vote for the evil tax-and-spend Democrats.