Moderate Democrats offer counter tax plan
A group of moderate House Democrats will release their proposal Wednesday for how their party should revamp taxes if given the chance, drawing a contrast with Republicans' own sweeping legislation.
The goal of the plan from the New Democrat Coalition is to 'promote economic growth without exacerbating the long-term fiscal situation or cutting essential programs like Medicaid and SNAP,' according to a summary shared with Semafor.
It includes some of the policies Republicans want to enact as part of their megabill — like expanding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and expanding the Child Tax Credit — but takes them a step further, including by making the CTC refundable. At the same time, it would preserve the same Biden-era clean energy tax credits that the GOP's legislation seeks to erase
Republicans 'decided to do it in a way that only favors the very wealthy at the expense of everyone else,' said Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., who oversaw the drafting of the proposal as chair of the group's tax taskforce and has penned his own no-tax-on-tips legislation. 'Now the question is, 'Will Republicans continue to walk the plank, or join with Democrats?''
Horsford added that he expects Democrats in purple districts to campaign on the proposal in the 2026 midterms as the party seeks to draw in economically disillusioned voters while fueling discontent with the GOP's tax-and-spending plan.
'You can't just be against Donald Trump or Republicans. You have to also articulate what you're for. And this is the difference and why this framework from the New Dems really matters,' Horsford said.
He argued that Democrats must outline specific changes, like the tax plan, that address Americans' deep-seated dissatisfaction with their financial straits, rather than simply focusing their economic messaging on restoring the status quo by reversing the GOP measure's cuts to Medicaid (or challenging the president's tariffs).
'We have to envision what things will look like when we work to build it back up — and it can't be built back the way it was, because it wasn't so great,' Horsford said. 'How we center those things [is] really going to matter for us.'
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