The Obama Administration said that they wanted an open and frank dialogue with sustainable and small business leaders and in a late afternoon tax policy session, they got it.
Aviva Aron-Dine, Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy fielded questions from about thirty ASBC members who presented the administration with a list of Tax Policy Principles formulated by the group and spoke with a unified voice against tax cuts and tax credits as a means to restore the economy. “We are here to tell you flat out that tax credits do not influence hiring.” one ASBC member said. Another member added that when the Administration proposes tax cuts and tax credits as a means for restoring the economy, that it only serves to bolster the administration’s congressional critics argument that he is not cutting taxes and slashing spending fast enough.
Aron-Dine stood her ground and asserted throughout the meeting that there was a long term and short term strategy at work to restore the economy and that proposed tax credits for increased payrolls and middle class tax cuts were an important part of that short term strategy.
The tax policy principles delivered by members of the sustainable business community included a list of measures designed to provide adequate revenue for public infrastructure and services that underpin a healthy economy.
-Restoring pre-Bush tax rates on all households with more than $250,000 in taxable income.
-Support for a “buffet rule” to ensure that America’s wealthiest households pay at least as much in taxes as middle class families.
-Support for a “GE rule” to ensure that America’s multi-national corporations pay at least as much in taxes as small businesses.
-Support for a surtax on incomes of more than $1 million.
-Support for restoring the estate tax to 2009 levels.
-Support for the elimination of the “carried interest exclusion” which allows private equity managers a preferential tax rate.
-Support for eliminating the capital gains gap.
-Support restoring progressivity to the corporate tax code.
-Support for the “Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act”
-Opposing a tax holiday for repatriation of foreign earnings.
-Support eliminating subsidies that target narrow industry sectors such as oil.
-Support a modest financial transaction tax, to interrupt the explosion of high frequency market speculation.
I can’t give the administration enough credit for having this conversation in the first place, so I’ll defer whatever criticism I have. The very notion that “full cost accounting” is being discussed within the White House is a tribute to this administration’s desire to change the dialogue and allow more diverse voices at the table. Ms. Aron-Dine was one of 29 administration officials that took part in yesterday’s events.