Let it be noted that one of the biggest items in the Build Back Better bill — its second-most-expensive provision — is its massive tax cut for the rich.
BBB raises the cap on deducting state and local taxes (SALT) on your federal return from $10,000 to $72,500, then gradually to $80,000.
That works out to $285 billion in tax cuts for the rich, notes the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget — which is more than the bill spends on paid family and medical leave, an item Democrats talk a lot more about. And it gives those high-end taxpayers nearly 50 times what far less wealthy Americans would get from its expanded child tax credits.
Per the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, 85 percent of the SALT benefits flow to the top 5 percent of taxpayers, mainly in New York, California and other high-tax states. Meanwhile, reports the Tax Policy Center, the bill would hike taxes modestly on up to a third of middle-income earners.
One silver lining: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and others are furious that the House inserted the SALT giveaway into the bill and vow to gut it in the Senate. But if they do, it could be a deal-breaker when the bill then goes back to the House.
It’d be a grand irony if Bernie, rather than Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), was the one to kill this dreadful bill.
