Grassley: Dems won’t be able to agree on $1T in tax increases

The Senate began debating Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray’s (D-Wash.) budget proposal Wednesday evening and will continue the debate for 50 hours, unless members agree to yield back time.

{mosads}Murray’s budget would raise $975 billion in new revenue through closing tax loophole for corporations and the wealthy and would cut an equal amount of spending. But Grassley said that the Senate Finance Committee, which he sits on, can’t possible come up with that much revenue that Democrats would agree to because tax reductions that benefit the middle class would have to be eliminated as well.

“What they assume is not really that realistic,” Grassley said. “This budget puts the burden on the Finance Committee to find tax offsets for $1 trillion over 10 years.”

Grassley pointed out that the top 10 tax expenditures are things Democrats advocate for. He added that the Democratic budget only promises a minimal amount of deficit reduction — almost $700 billion — partially because of tax increases, so if the Finance Committee can’t pass tax reforms, the country would be left with increased spending during a time when the national debt is nearly $17 trillion.

“This budget represents a dramatic step backward for the United States taxpayer,” Grassley said. “This budget spends too much and taxes too much and results in too much new debt.”

Democrats say that their budget is better for the middle class since it doesn’t use the “trickle-down economics” that the House GOP budget does. The House GOP budget would reduce the top tax rate to 25 percent and eliminate some tax deductions that Democrats say would harm the middle class.