We are under five months away from when voters will decide the direction our country takes on abortion, climate, and immigration. Another fight with huge consequences is also teed up: The fight over taxes.

In 2017, Donald Trump signed his only major legislative achievement: a $2 trillion tax cut mostly sucked up by millionaires, billionaires, and giant corporations — you know, the guys Trump is now begging for money to pay his legal bills and fund his campaign. In 2025, many of those cuts will expire, and — ready or not — Congress will be forced to confront big decisions on tax policy.

The 2025 tax fight will create a huge opportunity to break with decades of tax-cutting political orthodoxy and reshape the tax code to reflect our nation’s values by raising taxes on the wealthy. That’s what Americans across the country are demanding. That’s what Joe Biden is running on. Next year, we must raise taxes on giant corporations and billionaires.

Below I’m going to go into detail on just how critical our country’s tax code policy is — and why this is a pivotal moment to shape the future of our economy. I’ve spent many years advocating for making our tax code fairer for the middle class, and I’m running for re-election this year to keep fighting for this. Will you pitch in $28 or any amount to help grow our campaign and make the case for policies that make our government work not just for the rich and powerful but for everyone? I’m grateful to have you on this team.

I want to be crystal clear: This is about what both Republicans and Democrats have done in years past. If Democrats take the coward’s way out and sign our names to a half-baked deal that lets the wealthy off the hook, it will be a huge failure — and one the American people cannot afford.

In short, taxes reflect our values. Taxes show what — and who — we value enough to collectively invest in. And today’s tax code reflects the values of a handful of the wealthy and well-connected, far more than the values of everyone else.

It is no surprise the United States ranks 31st out of 38 developed countries in terms of tax revenue as a share of GDP. Our tax code is now caught in a doom loop. Tax loopholes for the wealthiest individuals and corporations mean the rich keep more and more of their money. And as the money floods to the top, so does power. Growing piles of cash fund growing armies of lobbyists that demand even bigger tax breaks. Cash spent on lobbying hit a record $4.3 billion last year — fueled by billionaires drooling over the prospect of even more lavish tax breaks in 2025. And boy, does it work. What are the policy consequences of high-powered lobbying and corporate-friendly senators and representatives on both sides of the aisle? Well, we end up with tax policy that reflects the values of the top 1% — and mostly the top 1% of the 1%. The tax doom loop also distorts every other part of our economy.

In 2020, things started to shift. Every major Democratic candidate running to replace Donald Trump made raising taxes on the wealthy a centerpiece of their presidential campaigns — including Joe Biden. Enough of the tax doom loop — candidates were willing to say no to billionaire donors. After Biden won and a deadly pandemic rattled our economy to the core, Biden and Democrats in Congress actually delivered. We passed tax policies that broke with decades of bad economic and political orthodoxy — and, in doing so, fueled the best economic recovery on the planet.

In 2022, we raised taxes on corporations for the first time in thirty years. Democrats in Congress passed my 15% minimum tax on billion-dollar corporations. This tax leapfrogged the usual tax loopholes and put a minimum tax on the profits these big corporations reported to their shareholders, meaning no more bragging to their wealthy investors about how big their profits were, and then telling the IRS they were too poor to pay taxes. It’s a tax change aligned with American values — and it will raise $222 billion in new revenue to boot.

Democrats also passed a massive funding increase for the long-underfunded IRS, so it can take on the millionaires and billionaires who have been holding back about $150 billion each year — money they legally owe. Early reports from that effort indicate that for every dollar invested, $10 will be returned. And, once again, tax policy was a sharp dividing line between the two parties: Every Democrat supported the tax increases on the rich and every Republican voted against them. Every. Single. One.

And that sets us up for the showdown in 2025, when Congress will decide what to do when a huge chunk of the Trump tax cuts expire, and big decisions need to be made.

If Republicans win in November, Donald Trump has already said exactly what will happen. He told his “rich as hell” donors — his words, not mine — that he will give them another huge tax cut. An “upper class” tax cut, and a “business class big tax cut.” That corporate rate, which Trump had already slashed from 35% down to 21% — why not lower it to 15%? And why not add a few more loopholes for Wall Street and Big Oil? The tax code is on the auction block, with favors going to Trump’s wealthiest donors.

If Democrats win, what happens next? In the past, we eagerly cut deals with Republicans that gave a teeny tiny tax break to middle-class Americans and another big, fat cut to those at the top. When Ronald Reagan got elected, for example, the Democratic House fell all over itself to make a $10 trillion tax cut deal with him. The tax doom loop in its full glory. Or look at the Bush tax cuts. Why did those cuts cost $8 trillion? Because Democrats cut a deal with Republicans to make nearly all of Bush’s temporary cuts permanent. The impact on the national debt was staggering.

Right after the deal was cut, Republicans claimed to care deeply about the deficit. They then fabricated a debt ceiling crisis, which they used to extract crippling budget cuts. Those cuts cost the U.S. economy more than 7 million jobs, and they helped set the stage for Donald Trump’s election in 2016.

Republicans are running the same play again — and too many Democrats have demonstrated just how eager we are to compromise. Earlier this year, hoping for an increase in the Child Tax Credit to lift 400,000 kids out of poverty — a very important goal — a number of Democrats agreed to give big corporations $3 in tax cuts for every $1 to poor families. Republicans tanked the deal because they believe they can get even more next year, and that Democrats won’t have the spine to stop them.

But Democrats don’t need to be suckers this time. We can turn away from our history of bad dealmaking, and double down on raising taxes for those at the top. We can make the U.S. tax code reflect the values of the American people by raising taxes for billionaires and billionaire corporations. That’s what Joe Biden is running on for his re-election. And it’s what the American people are demanding — loud and clear.

Four in five Americans support raising taxes on the rich — 80%. And that’s ALL Americans, Democrats, Republicans, and independents. And take a closer look at the Trump voters. Nearly two in three voters who pulled the lever for Donald Trump in 2020 say they support raising taxes on the rich. If Democrats play hardball on taxing billionaires, America will be with us.

Raising taxes on the rich to pay for other programs makes those other programs even more popular. For example, a big investment like affordable child care is incredibly popular — but when child care is paired with a plan to pay for it by raising taxes on the wealthy and large corporations, it becomes even more popular — up 4 percentage points overall, and up 7 points with independents, and 6 with Republicans. In other words, when we talk about taxes to pay for the programs we want, we build broader support for those programs.

At a time when people have grown cynical about Democratic promises, showing our willingness to tax billionaires and giant corporations to pay for those programs strengthens our credibility.

My two-cent wealth tax would pay for universal child care; cancel all student loan debt, make technical school, two-year, and four-year colleges free; create a $5 billion investment in historically Black colleges and universities; and give every public K-12 school a million dollars to invest in the way that best meets their specific needs. When we remind people of that, we invite them to dream big for our children and for our nation — and to reject the answer that we can’t make our country a better place because Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk don’t want to pay taxes.

The possible changes to our tax code are not mysterious. Democrats have a long list of ideas that raise taxes on the wealthy and big businesses — raising rates, closing loopholes, strengthening minimum taxes, and investing in the IRS.

Our redlines should also be clear: At the end of the 2025 tax reform process, large corporations must pay higher taxes. A typical billionaire must pay a higher tax rate than a typical middle-class family. And wealthy tax cheats must be sweating because the IRS has enough money to enforce the law.

Democrats have good, popular ideas about taxes. All we need is courage. Courage to shake off half a century of running for the hills every time the subject of taxes comes up. Courage to stand up to billionaire and corporate donors. Courage to say to the wealthiest and most powerful people in this country, “pay up.”

It's time to stiffen our spines. Joe Biden is right: if the 2025 tax bill doesn’t call on wealthy people and giant corporations to shoulder a bigger share of what it costs to run this country, Democrats should reject it outright. And that is true no matter what crumbs the lobbyists toss our way to sweeten a bad deal.

A little money for poor children or a modest tax cut for middle-class families is still a lousy deal when we can’t fund child care or infrastructure because the wealthiest among us are still sucking up billions in tax breaks. Better to let all the Trump tax cuts expire than be accomplices to another slash-and-burn tax bonanza for America’s billionaires.

It’s time to talk about our values — and time to get out there and fight for them. Donald Trump is telling rich donors that he’ll give them even more tax breaks. He wants to build an America that works even better for those who have already made it big. Democrats should follow Joe Biden’s lead and double down on taxing the rich. Tax the rich so that we can build a stronger, fairer America — an America with opportunity for everybody, where every kid has a first-rate education, where our transportation system isn’t the butt of jokes, and where families aren’t bankrupted by one bad medical diagnosis. The American people are telling us that they are ready for a tax code that promotes their values, and Democrats must be ready to deliver.

I’ve fought hard for this, and I’m going to continue doing everything I can to make wealthy billionaires and corporations pay their fair share in taxes. Your support makes this work possible. If you believe it’s time to tax the rich, can you please pitch in $28 or anything you can to help grow momentum for this critical policy?

Thanks for being a part of this,

Elizabeth Warren