Former Vice President Joe Biden promised to roll back tax cuts enacted by President Donald Trump if he’s elected president.
“I’m going to get rid of the bulk of Trump’s $2 trillion tax cut and a lot of you may not like that but I’m going to close loopholes like capital gains and stepped up basis,” Biden, 77, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, told people during a virtual fundraiser this week.
Biden also said he’d raise corporate tax, currently at 20 percent, to 28 percent, which he said would raise some $1.3 trillion over 10 years.
“We have a lot to do and we have a lot of other things we’re able to do—cap deductions and sanction tax avoidance etc. We have to think as big as the challenge we face. But this is America, there is nothing we cannot do if we do it together. But I think the country is ready,” he continued.
“I think people are ready to do things that they weren’t before and I think we can significantly grow the economy, grow the GDP, but also do it in a way that we provide dignity for people,” Biden added.
Attendees of the fundraiser included Jane Hartley, the former U.S. ambassador to France and the chairman of Sesame Workshop; Blair Effron, founder and partner of Centerview Partners; and Deven Parekh, managing director of Insight Partners.
Roger Altman, founder and senior chairman at Evercore, who helped moderate, told Biden, “I think I can speak for virtually everyone on this call by saying we would agree with that agenda, including those tax changes.”
Trump, a Republican who is running for reelection, signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law late December 2017.
The bill reduced the individual income rate, cut the corporate income tax rate, and doubled the child tax credit, among other things.
The cuts led to the average American paying about 25 percent less in taxes, according to data from H&R Block.
Democrats have opposed the cuts and any future cuts, arguing they’re contributing to a rising national deficit.
