DALLAS— President Obama will outline a plan to raise $320 billion in new taxes on the job-creating class in tomorrow’s State of the Union address. Having failed at enriching middle-income workers, Obama now wants to impoverish higher-income earners, says Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) resident scholar Merrill Matthews, Ph.D.
In a statement, Matthews said:
“The president is improving a bit. Obama's proposed $320 billion tax increase is actually modest compared to his past proposals.
In his 2014 budget proposal, the president proposed $800 billion in tax increases over 10 years. In the 2015 budget, he proposed $1.3 trillion in new taxes. Fortunately, Republicans didn't pass his 2014 or 2015 budget, and they won't pass this increase either.
But at the center of Obama’s tax proposal is an increase in the capital gains and dividends rate on couples making more than $500,000 per year to 28 percent. The best way to stimulate economic growth is by cutting taxes on capital. But Obama wants to raise taxes on capital, which will stymie investment and reduce economic growth.
A capital gains tax hike is a step toward the president’s ultimate goal to decrease income inequality, not because it promotes the lower and middle classes, but because it lowers the incomes of job creators.”
Merrill Matthews, Ph.D. is resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), an independent, nonprofit public policy organization based in Dallas. He is available for interview by contacting Erin Humiston at (972) 874-5139, or erin@ipi.org.
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