We’ve got GREAT news. We can afford paid family and medical leave for 85 MILLION moms, in addition to our other core infrastructure policies. How? By ensuring billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share. It’s time to prioritize families, NOT billionaires.

What’s going on? Following the Biden/Harris Administration’s lead with the Build Back Better plan, Congress has introduced the Billionaires Income Tax and the Corporate Profits Minimum Tax. The Billionaires Tax would raise $250 billion in revenue over 10 years and would be paid by individuals with $1 billion in assets – which applies to about 700 households in the country – and people earning more than $100 million in annual income for the last three years. The Corporate Profits Minimum Tax would be applied to companies that report $1 billion in profits to shareholders and would be subject to a 15% tax on those massive profits. Our nation’s billionaires have seen their wealth grow by 70 percent during the pandemic while families have been in crisis. [1] It is past time for them to pay their fair share of taxes.

What’s at stake? Together, the Billionaires Income Tax and the Corporate Profits Minimum Tax would create a fairer tax system and allow for critical programs like paid family and medical leave for the 85 million mothers and their families in America. For decades, lawmakers have allowed the tax code to entrench racial inequity and foster wealth disparities. Low-income people of color pay more in taxes without receiving equal access to resources in their community. Meanwhile, billionaires and big corporations have not been required to pay their fair share in taxes. The Billionaires Income Tax and Corporate Profits Minimum Tax allows us to right this wrong for future generations and invest in key priorities like high quality and accessible child care and paid family and medical leave.

America needs a care infrastructure more than we need to give billionaires and big corporations tax breaks. We need a fair tax system that counters, rather than entrenches, the appalling racial, gender and income inequality our country is facing today. We need a tax system without the loopholes and dodges that allow the ultra-wealthy to pay less in taxes than bus drivers, teachers, and factory and food service workers.

With fair tax policy, like the Billionaires Income Tax and the Corporate Profits Minimum Tax, we have more than enough revenue to fund paid family and medical leave, as well as a fully refundable and permanent Child Tax Credit (CTC), childcare, home- and community-based services, living wages and a path to citizenship for all care workers.

- Lauren, Kristin, Donna, Hanna, and the whole MomsRising.org/MamásConPoder.org team

P.S. Personal experiences are powerful and can make a HUGE difference in helping elected leaders understand how public policies impact families so they can move change. We want to hear more from YOU! Can you take a second and follow the link below to share your personal story about how having, or NOT having, access to job-protected paid leave has impacted your family in the pandemic? https://action.momsrising.org/survey/Caretaking_Stories

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