ASBC Tax Policy Review Session
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.
Ah man–why not just support the deduction of credit card interest for all Americans that was cut under Reagan and we’re less confused and everyone gets a break!!!!
We could also re-inflate the housing bubble. 🙂
Is this group building a media operation? One that might get their names on the rolodexes of producers and reporters? A business group not in lockstep for feeding at the trough would be a welcome perspective. Sorta like how often you see both AIPAC and JStreet reached out to for the same topic.
Hope you reposted this at dKos too!
Yes. In the past year even the The Wall Street Journal has reached out to them to get people to provide other perspectives. The ramp up has been pretty fast thanks to a very big buy in from the White House.
I’ll go ahead and cross post it at kos. I hadn’t thought of that.
Well done.
Thank you btw.
Rats, it’s probably too late but the one additional item I would have liked to gain traction, would be to allow the write-off of physical capital against their yearly tax bill.
I should clarify: write-off for just domestic physical capital.
I would have no problem over the next two years, for a company like GE, or any other, who wanted to build a Billion dollars worth of manufacturing plants around the country, and we in turn would let them write that entire billion off in one year. Even if they pay no taxes, the jolt of putting that $1 billion directly into the US economy, would benefit not just the Feds, but state and local tax structures as the money filtered up, not to mention those in the building trades who are sorely hurting right now.
The problem with Reagan’s tax cuts, was we never did sufficiently get domestic investment. We need to target tax breaks for only physical capital (building things) here in the US… Build in China, sorry dude, you still owe higher taxes… 🙂
Good point. I think the accelerated depreciation schedules that we’ve had for a few years try to get at that, but don’t do it as directly as your proposal.
That is a great idea kavips…but only if the building goes to occupancy/use. Don’t want to see a bunch of concrete jungles, and ticky tacky shacks made in collusion w/ building trades/companies for exploited tax advantages. So maybe not 100% in the first year……but yes, US only.