Christie: Cut top tax rate to 28 percent

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey pushed Tuesday to broadly overhaul the tax code, laying out details in what’s likely to be a key part of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Christie, a potential candidate for the GOP nomination, proposed cutting the top individual tax rate to 28 percent, and the top corporate rate to 25 percent. The top rates currently stand at almost 40 percent for individuals and 35 percent for corporations. 

{mosads}The New Jersey governor added in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that there should only be three tax brackets for individuals, down from the current seven. The bottom tax rate, Christie said, should be in the single digits. 

Christie’s case for tax reform was similar to other potential presidential candidates, and lawmakers from both parties: The tax code is far too complicated, forcing taxpayers to take far too much time to comply. That has helped to drag down what has been a weak economic recovery, Christie maintained.

“These past six years have seen a weak economy combined with a set of monetary policies that were geared for the wealthy, exacerbating the very problem the left loves to harp on: income inequality,” Christie said. “The best way to address income inequality is to nurture overall growth.”

Christie noted that his 28 percent rate would be the same as in the 1986 overhaul of the tax code. But that tax rate is also far less aggressive than the flat tax being pushed by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), which would likely push a single rate in the teens.

On the other side of the spectrum, Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) proposal only gets the top rate down to 35 percent, leading some conservative critics to insist that Rubio is worried too much about giving tax incentives to families and not enough about economic growth.

Christie says his plan would not add to the deficit, and suggests one way to make that happen is to cap the amount of credits and deductions taxpayers can take. But while the New Jersey governor wants to rid the code of tax breaks, he says that two of the most expensive ones – the deduction for charitable contributions and home mortgage interest – should stay.

Democrats said that Christie’s plan was just more of the same from Republicans.

“The one thing Christie has made clear about his tax plan so far: it cuts taxes for the wealthiest and corporations,” Holly Shulman, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement. 

“And what would he do for the middle class? Unclear. This shows again where the Republican Party stands – prioritizing tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations above all else.”