President Obama Threatens to Veto Tax Deal That Would Help the Wealthy
President Barack Obama has threatened to veto a bipartisan tax deal that would create permanent tax perks for corporations without giving tax breaks to middle and working class Americans.
Since the midterm elections, Republican and Democrats have been negotiating a deal to expand tax breaks that expired at the end of 2013. However, White House spokeswoman Jennifer Friedman warned that "the President would veto the proposed deal because it would provide permanent tax breaks to help well-connected corporations while neglecting working families," reports the Huffington Post.
The bill proposes to extend and expand tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations; however, it would not extend the Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor or the $1,000-per-child tax credit that benefits low-income and middle-class families for the next two years. In addition, both tax credits would be cut by 2017, NPR reports.
Critics also note that the new package could increase the U.S. deficit by over $400 billion over the next 10 years.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew condemned the bill in a statement saying, "An extender package that makes permanent expiring business provisions without addressing tax credits for working families is the wrong approach, at the expense of middle class families. Any deal on tax extenders must ensure that the economic benefits are broadly shared."
Congressional leaders in the Democratic Party have also spoken out in support of Obama's plan to kill the tax deal.
"This tax cut agreement does exactly the wrong things. At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, it extends huge tax cuts to the rich and large corporations while threatening programs that help low-income children. At a time when we need to reverse climate change and aggressively move to sustainable energy, this agreement fails to eliminate tax benefits for the fossil fuel industry but phases out tax credits for wind and solar. This is pretty crazy stuff. I strongly support the president's decision to veto it," said Sen. Bernie Sanders in a statement, according to Politicus USA.
If the expired tax breaks are not extended by Congress, then it would lead to a dramatic increase in taxes for millions of businesses and people for the current tax year.
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