President Joe Biden has asked Congress to increase tax revenue by $5 trillion over the next ten years, a figure far greater than lawmakers anticipated as Biden had repeatedly downplayed his tax agenda in meetings.
Biden revealed the tax increases in his $6.8 trillion annual budget proposal, a move that could have a significant impact on the President’s reelection campaign.
The proposed tax increases could also impact Senate Democrats, who will have to defend 23 seats in the Senate next year.
The seats they’re defending include ones in Republican-leaning states like Montana, Ohio, and West Virginia, where voters will likely have concerns about inflation and the economy.
Republicans argue Biden’s tax proposal will be the return of tax-and-spend liberal politics, claiming that taxing the rich and corporations would hurt the economy.
However, Biden contends that his tax proposal wouldn’t be off-putting to voters, vowing he won’t raise the taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000 a year.
Republican Senator Mike Crapo (Idaho), the ranking member of the Senate Financial Committee, described Biden’s tax proposals as “jaw-dropping,” noting that the President’s approach won’t solve the United States’ “fiscal problems.”
Crapo added that the $5 trillion from accumulated tax hikes had to be the “largest tax increase in American history.”
Lawmakers were anticipating Biden to propose between $2 trillion and $2.5 trillion in tax revenue increases over the next decade, based on remarks Biden made in the State of the Union and media reporting in the days before the White House unveiled its budget.
