Taxes are due, and Congress is back in session. In the midst of these conjoined omens of doom, there is one small point of interest: Eric Cantor intends to introduce his 20 percent tax cut for small businesses this week.
The cut would go to all companies with 499 or fewer employees. Seems simple enough. But House Democrats have seized on the tax cut and are trying to paint it as just another giveaway to the filthy rich:
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Thursday began circulating a release to media in some 60 GOP Congressional districts…attacking the plan, which would provide a 20 percent tax break to small businesses.
In the release, the DCCC questions whether the various Members will support the “proposal to give more tax cuts to the richest people in the United States — people like Oprah Winfrey and Kim Kardashian — when it comes to the floor next week?”
Nevermind that the DCCC’s examples of undeserving beneficiaries likely won’t ever appear on a GOP donor list. What’s their proposed alternative?
Instead, [Rep. Chris Van Hollen] the ranking member on the Budget Committee advocated closing loopholes on multi-national corporations, such as subsidies on corporate jets and for oil companies, or giving incentives to companies who bring jobs into America from overseas.
So no tax cuts for small business, but loophole closings for some big corporations. I think he misses the point of Cantor’s proposal.
Though, to be fair, if Van Hollen is genuinely serious about closing loopholes, let’s do it across the board. Drop all of the breaks, loopholes and deductions for all business, great, small and in between. And then lower the rates. A simple system that would save time, not to mention legal and accountant fees, would be both fair and sensible.
And in the interim, perhaps he could convince Warren Buffett to get his NetJets unit to cough-up the hundreds of millions in taxes the government is suing it for…in the name of fairness, of course.
Speaking of which…according to the Wall Street Journal, the “Buffett Rule” that the Senate is scheduled to vote on today has developed a fatal flaw:
…both Mr. Obama and Senate Democrats have made it clear that their new “fairness” tax is to offset the revenue loss from another provision related to the Alternative Minimum Tax.
That measure would exempt more than 20 million middle class Americans with incomes as low as $80,000 a year from getting nailed by the AMT. This year’s Obama budget clearly describes their intent: “The Buffett Rule should replace the Alternative Minimum Tax, which now burdens middle-class Americans rather than stopping the richest Americans from paying too little as was originally intended.”
The Joint Tax Committee—the official scoring referee on tax bills—calculates that the combination of AMT repeal for the middle class and the Buffett tax would add $793.3 billion to the debt over the next decade. As Mr. Obama has said, “This isn’t politics, this is math.”
Oopsie.
