By Emily Goodin, Senior U.S. Political Reporter In Washington D.C. and Paul Farrell
15:07 07 Mar 2024, updated 17:12 07 Mar 2024
- Biden to propose increasing fuel tax for private and corporate jets
- Trump uses a private jet to campaign against Biden
- Proposals will be outlined in Biden’s State of the Union address
President Joe Biden will crack down on private jets as part of his plan to hike the taxes on the super rich as he tries to win over voters upset with his stewardship of the economy.
Biden will also propose that billionaires would need to pay a minimum of 25% in federal taxes on their income as he targets the super wealthy like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
Another person who will be affected by his plans is his 2024 rival Donald Trump, who relies on his private jet – Trump Force One – to campaign across the country. Biden uses the military jet Air Force One for his travel.
The president wants the ‘wealthy pay their fair share,’ Lael Brainard, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters on a briefing call.
Brainard noted the president will be ‘fighting for working people and middle class families like the ones he grew up with in Scranton. The President will continue to put the middle class first as he lays out his plan for the American economy.’
The sweeping tax increases are targeted at bringing down the U.S. deficit but also raising Biden’s poll numbers as he heads into the November election. Polls show Trump in the lead – by a narrow margin – with eight months until Election Day.
Voters give Biden low marks for his handling of the economy. And Trump has hammered Biden repeatedly on the high rate of inflation that has raised food and fuel prices for consumers.
The president’s proposals will also affect some of his allies: John Kerry, his former climate adviser, uses a private jet. So do celebrities like Taylor Swift and Leonardo DiCaprio, who support the president.
Biden will propose increasing the fuel tax on corporate and private jet travel and changing depreciation rules. The White House declined to say how much the fuel tax would be increased.
The president will also target corporations, proposing to raise the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 25 percent.
Biden will lay out his plans in his State of the Union Address on Thursday night and next week when releases his proposed fiscal 2025 budget.
Most of Biden’s tax proposals have little chance of enactment. Even when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress early in his presidency, Biden could not get the corporate tax rate raised.
The tax plans, however, are expected to form a core part of Biden’s re-election campaign, contrasting markedly with Trump whose 2017 ‘Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’ slashed taxes on companies and the wealthy.
Biden would use some of the revenue to pay for expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, which would help lower-income families. And he is seeking to permanently make health insurance premiums lower for those who receive their medical coverage through the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
The increased tax rate also is intended to cut the deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade.
‘Congressional Republicans want to cut taxes even more for the wealthy and big corporations, all while adding more than $3 trillion to the debt,’ said Brainard.
‘President Biden has made clear whose side he’s on.’
The proposals include Biden’s previous calls to raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from the current 21 percent, recouping half of Republicans’ 2017 cut.
Biden also now wants to increase to 21 percent a 15 percent corporate minimum tax on companies reporting over $1 billion in profit that he won as part of 2022 clean energy legislation.
Biden also will call for Congress to approve far stricter limits on business income deductions for executive pay, limiting them to $1 million for any given employee.
Current law already prohibits deductions on compensation for chief executive officers, chief financial officers and other key positions. White House officials said the new proposal would cover all employees paid more than $1 million, and raise over $250 billion in new corporate tax revenue over 10 years.
Biden will also go after business income deductions for the use of corporate jets, an area already targeted for audits by the Internal Revenue Service.
This includes extending the depreciation period for corporate jets to seven years, the same as commercial aircraft, from five years currently, reducing annual deductions, an administration official said.
Biden will renew his ‘billionaire tax’ proposal, which is actually significantly below that level. It imposes a 25 percent minimum tax on income for those Americans with wealth of over $100 million.
The average American worker paid about a 25 percent in 2022, the OECD reports. White House research found the wealthiest individuals paid about 8 percent from 2010 to 2018.
Biden will pledge to extend Trump-era tax cuts for those earning under $400,000, call for restoring a COVID-era expansion of the Child Tax Credit that paid eligible families up to $3,600 a year per child, and increase a tax credit for low-wage workers.
As consumers continue to struggle with high prices, Biden also will outline steps that his administration is taking to cut ‘corporate rip-offs’ including added ‘junk’ fees, price gouging and reduced package sizes to hide price hikes.
So-called ‘shrinkflation’ was bemoaned on Monday by Sesame Street muppet Cookie Monster in a widely reported X social media post.
After a move this week to cap credit card late fees at $8, Biden also will call for crackdowns on ‘exploitative’ practices with branded credit cards, including devaluing air miles and points.