Trump team touts tax policy ahead of final debate
White House official says president plans to make the case that Biden’s plan will ruin the economy
The Trump administration is focusing on the benefits of the president’s tax policies in the run-up to the final presidential debate in Nashville on Thursday night, less than two weeks ahead of the 2020 election.
National Economic Director Larry Kudlow told FOX Business on Wednesday that the president planned to “lay out the case” that Joe Biden’s tax hikes will “decimate the economy.”
“I think he’ll make the case for his own tax and regulatory reductions, which gave us a strong prosperity cycle,” Kudlow said. “Median-income families gained $65,000 over the first three years before the China pandemic – that is five-times what the Obama-Biden team got over eight years.”
Kudlow went on to say that if the Trump tax cuts are rolled back, as Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., have pledged to do, the middle class “would get wiped out.”
JOE BIDEN’S TAX PLAN WILL PUT MIDDLE CLASS IN 'PERIL,' HOME DEPOT’S LANGONE SAYS
The White House is also pointing a more rapid economic recovery than experts had previously expected as a sign that the president’s economic policies are effective.
U.S. Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia told FOX Business on Tuesday that, despite a deep recession brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. unemployment rate is “much, much lower” than what was predicted back in April.
“The task before us is first to maintain the policies the president had set that were so vital in building that amazing job market we had pre-COVID,” Scalia said. “Those policies of low taxes, eliminating unnecessary regulatory burdens … when you ask what we need going forward, that’s an important part of what we need.”
Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone told FOX Business that the Biden tax plan would put the middle-class “in peril.’
Biden’s tax plan is built upon the idea of building a more progressive and equitable tax code by asking the wealthiest Americans to pay more.
He would repeal changes made to individual income tax rates for the wealthy (individuals with incomes over $400,000) under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which means the top rate would revert back to 39.6 percent, from 37 percent.
Income above $400,000 would be subject to the 12.4 percent Social Security tax – split evenly between employees and employers. Currently, there is a wage cap of $137,700.
He would tax capital gains at the same rates as ordinary income and reduce the basic exclusion amount for estate and gift taxes – while raising the corporate tax rate to 28 percent.
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The Tax Policy Center estimates Biden’s proposals would increase federal revenues by $4 trillion between 2021 and 2030, relative to current law. It would also disproportionately raise taxes on the top quintile of the income distribution.
The topics that have been decided upon for Thursday’s debate include "Fighting COVID-19," "American Families," "Race in America," "Climate Change," "National Security" and "Leadership."