Washington — Tax Day shows that Joe Biden and Donald Trump disagree on how much to share about their finances and how to promote the economy through tax policy.
On Monday, the IRS filing deadline, Democratic President Biden will release his income tax returns. He will speak in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday on why the wealthiest should pay more taxes to cut the government debt and finance poor and middle-class programs.
Biden is happy that he was mostly penniless for most of his decades in public service, unlike Trump, who inherited hundreds of millions from his father and utilized his billionaire status to start a TV show and a presidential campaign.
“For 36 years, I was listed as the poorest man in Congress,” Biden told California donors in February. “No joke.” Trump campaigned in 2015, saying, “I'm really rich.”
The Republican former president claims that people don't need his tax data and that earlier financial disclosures are enough. He believes that maintaining taxes low for the wealthiest will boost investment and create more employment, while tax hikes would hurt an economy recovering from four-decade inflation in 2022.
“Biden wants to give the IRS even more cash by proposing the largest tax hike on the American people in history when they are already being robbed by his record-high inflation crisis,” said Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
The rift extends beyond ideology and poses a significant challenge for the November election winner. Many of Trump's 2017 tax cuts will expire in 2025, prompting an avalanche of choices about how much people across income levels should pay as the national debt rises to historic levels.
Including interest payments, extending all tax breaks could add $3.8 trillion to the national debt through 2033, according to a Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget report last year.
Based on his promise that no one earning less than $400,000 will pay more, Biden wants to preserve most tax advantages. However, his budget proposal this year included tax increases on the affluent and companies that would raise $4.9 trillion and reduce anticipated deficits by $3.2 trillion over 10 years. He still tells voters he supports letting Trump-era tax cuts expire.
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