Today, Groundwork Collaborative and more than 100 leading public interest organizations representing tens of millions of people have come together to call on Congress to pass a bold set of changes to the tax code – including to corporate taxes – when several parts of the 2017 Trump tax law expire. Read the letter to congressional leaders and view the list of signers here.
“Congress has a clear runway in 2025 to remake the tax code so it works for the people who drive our economy. The historic group of organizations who penned today’s letter are prepared to hold legislators accountable for ending the massive tax giveaways to the wealthy and corporations and making our tax code more fair. We can start by raising the corporate rate,” said Groundwork Collaborative Executive Director Lindsay Owens, who wrote a recent op-ed that argues for raising corporate taxes in 2025.
The letter comes on the heels of a Congressional Budget Office projection that renewing the individual and estate tax cuts in the Trump law alone would cost the country $4.6 trillion. In their letter, the groups call the Trump tax bill a “failure on its own terms,” noting that the bill failed to deliver the promised boost in wages for typical workers and failed to “pay for itself.” Instead, it compounded mistakes of previous rounds of tax reform, which have skewed the tax code towards the wealthy and significantly eroded tax revenues.
“American workers were promised that if we spent $2 trillion on tax cuts primarily for corporations and the rich, it would trickle down into higher wages. That didn’t happen. Corporations got their tax cut, but workers didn’t get their pay raise,” said Michael Linden, the former executive associate director at the White House Office of Management and Budget and a coordinator of the letter.
The groups write that Congress should use the expiration of the Trump tax bill to accomplish three important goals:
“This broad coalition is making clear that Congress cannot simply tinker around the edges of our tax code in 2025 – it must reject the failed approach of the Bush and Trump tax cuts and use this opportunity to produce a fairer tax code that supports necessary investments and fuels faster and more inclusive growth. The Trump tax bill was a bad law and 2025 is Congress’ chance to replace it with something a lot better,” said Bharat Ramamurti, former National Economic Council Deputy Director and a coordinator of the letter.
Read the letter to congressional leaders and view the list of signers here.