DOWN TO BRASS TAX
By Lisa Desjardins, @LisaDNews
Correspondent

Democrats’ current agenda push involves many countervailing forces: moderates and conservatives; the House and the Senate, and, over all of it, spending and taxes.

Promising to pay for whatever they spend in the “Build Back Better” bill, Democrats are now working toward a final version of a set of new taxes that they need to cover the hundreds of billions of dollars of initiatives they hope to push through.

We thought it would be a good time to lay out what we know about their current tax proposals. 

Initial Congressional proposal

Democrats passed the starting tax plan last month in the House Ways and Means Committee. It would:

• Raise the rate for wealthy individuals.  Democrats’ initial plan was to increase the top income tax rate for Americans making more than $400,000 a year ($450,000 if filing jointly). The plan was for it to rise from the current 37 percent to 39.6 percent, essentially erasing the Trump tax cuts for this group.

• Raise the rate for corporations.  This proposal would increase the current 21 percent corporate tax rate to 26.5 percent. Before the Trump tax cuts, the rate was 35 percent. 

But Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., has objected to raising tax rates in these ways. Someone with knowledge of her view told the NewsHour that she believes both individuals and corporations can still find ways to get around tax increases, and that it could be harmful to businesses. 

Her vote is critical to passing the Build Back Better bill and thus, Democrats are creating alternative ways to raise the money they need.

Other ideas on the table right now

• Billionaire tax on “unrealized” asset gains.  Democrats are circling around a tax on tradable assets, like stocks, which gain value over time but whose value is not otherwise taxed because the owner of the stocks has not sold. Some call this “unrealized” value.  The plan would target the ultrarich, taxing anyone with more than $1 billion in assets or who has made $100 million or more for three years. Sources familiar with negotiations confirm there would be carry-forward and carry-back provisions allowing the taxpayers to recoup money in years in which stocks or other assets lost value.

• Corporate “minimum tax.”  On the business side, Democrats are discussing a way to make sure corporations pay a kind of “minimum” tax. The current idea is to tax the “book value” or earnings on the financial books of the company. Legally, those earnings can be different from the taxable earnings that the I.R.S. sees. 

• Millionaire surtax. The current discussion is for a 3 percent surtax on incomes of more than $5 million a year. 

A host of other ideas.  There are myriad small and large tax provisions on the table now, including a tax on methane emissions that some Democrats refer to as a “pollution tax.”

‘Striketober’ is showing workers’ rising power – but will it lead to lasting change?  - Oct. 23 Thousands of workers across the country have gone on strike, demanding better pay and benefits from corporate employers whose businesses are booming. Why it matters: The real test as these strikes continue, labor experts say, is whether they lead to increased union membership or lasting pay and benefit improvements -- The Guardian 

Montanans used to live and let live. Now bitter confrontations cloud Big Sky Country -  Oct. 25. A Montana community that once took pride in its social and political independence is now deeply divided over mask mandates and transgender sports. After three local teen suicides and increasingly contentious political bickering, residents say they no longer recognize their hometown.  Why it matters:  The divisions are turning every local race, from school boards to health councils, into partisan rancor and is an example of the growing division all across America. -- The Washington Post 

6 candidates for US Senate in Ohio vie for evangelical votes - Oct. 25 There is only one moderate Republican vying for the open Senate seat in Ohio, who in a recent debate was also the only one not to repeat false claims of a stolen election. Why it matters: Moderate candidates are becoming fewer and far between in the Republican Party as Trumpism continues to take hold and reshape what it means to be a Republican. -- Associated Press 

What it's like to be on the front lines of the school board culture war - Oct. 21 Local school board officials across the country, many of whom are volunteers, are facing an onslaught of violent threats from people protesting their policies, from regulating police in schools to how districts teach history. Why it matters:  Attorney General Merrick Garland has directed the FBI to meet with local law enforcement to come up with a plan for how to handle what has become a serious safety issue in many communities, including improved methods of reporting and assessing threats. -- NPR 

The World ‘Has Found a Way to Do This’: The U.S. Lags on Paid Leave - Oct. 25 Congress was once proposing 12 weeks of paid family leave in their social spending bill but that number has now been whittled down to four, keeping America far behind the rest of the  world when it comes to its national paid leave policies. Why it matters: Many experts say that four weeks is not an adequate amount of leave time for new mothers or workers with an illness. -- The New York Times 

This Sunday is Halloween, a holiday where many recent presidents have hosted a public trick-or-treat for local children to come show off their costumes and receive candy from the Commander-in-Chief.

Our question: Which president was the first to host such an event? 

Send your answers to [email protected] or tweet using #PoliticsTrivia. The first correct answers will earn a shout-out next week.

Last week, we asked: Which president coined the term, “executive privilege”? 

The answer: Dwight Eisenhower.

Congratulations to our winners: Joe Muller and Marilyn Howard!