Biden Tells Donors He Plans To Get Rid A ‘Bulk of Trump Tax Cuts’

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden during a virtual campaign fundraiser warn donors Monday evening that he plans once elected to “get rid of the bulk of Trump’s $2 trillion tax cut,” a move he added they “may not like.”

“Folks, this is going to be really hard work and Donald Trump has made it much harder to foot the bill,” Biden said, according to press pool report about one of the two fundraising events he held on Monday. “But even before the crisis, his irresponsible sugar-high tax cuts had already pushed us into a trillion-dollar deficit and imagine what we could do now if we weren’t in that circumstance.”

He added, “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.”

The campaign provided this list of the main hosts that included Roger Altman, Founder and Senior Chairman of Evercore who moderated the discussion; Jane Hartley, former U.S. ambassador to France and the chairman of Sesame Workshop; Blair Effron, the founder, and Partner of Centerview Partners; Deven Parekh, Managing Director of Insight Partners; John Vogelstein, Senior Advisor of Warburg Pincus and Barbara Vogelstein, the founder of ShareGift USA. 

Biden then spoke about his tax policies that include raising the corporate tax of 20 to 28 percent, which he said is projected to “raise $1.3 trillion over 10 years.” President Trump permanently slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent in late 2017 with he enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law.

He also floated the idea of capping deduction and sanctioning companies for tax avoidance. Trump increased the size of standard tax deduction under his tax cut, raising the deduction from $6,500 to $12,000 for singles, from $13,000 to $24,000 for married couples, and from $9,550 to $18,000 for heads of household.

“We have a lot to do and we have a lot of other things we are able to do cap deductions and sanction tax avoidance, etc,” Biden said. “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.”

The former vice president vowed he would “invest record sums of money in clean energy innovation and infrastructure” that would create “millions of good-paying jobs of the future.”

“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 stated.

On the current economic situation amid the coronavirus pandemic, Biden was asked how he would “balance the short-term requirements to address the crisis with the long-term investments.” Laughing and calling this an “easy question,” Biden responded that the pandemic and systematic racism are “intertwined” that require “both relief and recovery.”

“As president, I’m going to start working right away to Number one, beat the virus for good. Build a stronger, more responsive public health system for the future. Boost oversight to get economic relief out to working families and small businesses that need it the most,” he stated without explaining the relief and recovery for systematic racism. “We have to get small businesses a restart package to cover their reopening costs, from everything from administering tests, taking temperatures to being able to pay the rent.”

The event, which was considered a fundraiser roundtable consisted of at least 30 people and raised at least $2 million.

20202020 Election2020 Presidential RaceCorporate TaxJoe BidenPresident TrumpTax Cuts and Jobs ActTrump Tax CutVirtual Fundraiser