Biden v. Trump: taxes

By BERRY CRAIG

Alliance for Retired Americans

Today, we are starting a new feature called "Biden v. Trump." We will compare their positions on issues important to working families based on news reports from reputable media sources, not from either campaign. 

Our first topic is taxes.

From the Associated Press: Joe Biden plans new taxes on the rich to help save Medicare

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday proposed new taxes on the rich to help fund Medicare, saying the plan would help to extend the insurance program’s solvency by 25 years and provide a degree of middle-class stability to millions of older adults.

In his plan, Biden is overtly declaring that the wealthy ought to shoulder a heavier tax burden. His budget would draw a direct line between those new taxes and the popular health insurance program for people older than 65, essentially asking those who’ve fared best in the economy to subsidize the rest of the population.

Biden wants to increase the Medicare tax rate from 3.8% to 5% on income exceeding $400,000 per year, including salaries and capital gains. The White House did not provide specific cost-saving estimates with the proposal, but the move would likely increase tax revenues by more than $117 billion over 10 years, according to prior estimates in February by the Tax Policy Center.

“This modest increase in Medicare contributions from those with the highest incomes will help keep the Medicare program strong for decades to come,” Biden wrote in a Tuesday essay in The New York Times. He called Medicare a “rock-solid guarantee that Americans have counted on to be there for them when they retire.”

-- By Chris Megerian and Josh Boak

From NBC News: Trump tells billionaires he'll keep their taxes low at $50 million fundraising gala

President Joe Biden released a video Saturday hitting Trump for promising to extend the 2017 tax cuts.

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump emphasized the importance of extending his signature tax cuts to some of the nation’s wealthiest political donors, according to a readout of his private remarks Saturday night provided by a Trump campaign official.

“Trump spoke on the need to win back the White House so we can turn our country around, focusing on key issues including unleashing energy production, securing our southern border, reducing inflation, extending the Trump Tax Cuts, eliminating Joe Biden’s insane [electric vehicle] mandate, protecting Israel, and avoiding global war,” the campaign official said of a roughly 45-minute speech to donors in Palm Beach, Florida.

The campaign declined NBC News’ requests to have a reporter present for his remarks and to make a full transcript of them available.

-- By Jonathan Allen, Matt Dixon and Garrett Haake