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Democrats Respond To Criticism Of Trump-Style Tax Cut Proposals

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WASHINGTON ― Two Democratic senators with possible presidential ambitions unveiled a new plan to increase taxes on people earning more than $1 million while eliminating them for households making less than $80,500 a year, firing back at critics who have suggested a recent wave of Democratic proposals to slash taxes are poorly thought-out attempts to ape President Donald Trump.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said his proposal with Sen. Mark Kelly (Ariz.) to exempt millions of households from income taxes is actually “the opposite of the Trump plan.”

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Van Hollen said Thursday in response to a HuffPost question at a press conference, “It’s hard to say that we’re embracing Donald Trump’s anti-tax message when we’re actually increasing taxes on people who make more than a million dollars every year.”

Van Hollen formally unveiled the bill Thursday as Democrats try to figure out what the party stands for ahead of the 2028 presidential election after the party lost in 2024 to a candidate promising “no tax on tips” and other populist goodies. The proposal stands little chance of becoming law anytime soon, but it’s an effort to set the agenda for Democrats when they eventually return to power.

A range of left-leaning policy wonks have complained that the proposal from Van Hollen, as well as an even bigger tax cut suggested by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), adopts Republicans’ anti-tax messaging. And a handful of Van Hollen’s Democratic colleagues have suggested cutting taxes shouldn’t be Democrats’ top priority.

“No. 1 on my agenda is getting billionaires to pay their fair share in taxes,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told HuffPost. “We live in a world where Jeff Bezos pays taxes at a lower rate than a Boston public school teacher, and that’s the problem we need to solve right now.”

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Asked about Booker’s plan, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pointed to his proposal for taxing billionaires, which he called “extremely popular.”

Chuck Marr, a tax policy expert at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, called Van Hollen’s proposal well-intentioned but said it could have “problematic” results. For one thing, Van Hollen structured the tax cut as an “exemption,” something taxpayers use to reduce the amount of their income subject to tax, meaning it would offer more benefit to higher-income households, which are subject to higher income taxes.

Another complaint from Marr ― as well as other prominent left-leaning policy experts, including at the Center for American Progress ― is that even if a big tax cut is fully “paid for” with new taxes on millionaires, the revenue lost to the tax cuts represents a missed opportunity to use fiscal policy to improve people’s lives, such as by expanding benefits for parents.

“It’s just not very well targeted, and it’s expensive,” Marr told HuffPost. But he said it’s “encouraging” that Democrats are putting out proposals for outside scrutiny, even if experts agree the proposals fall short.

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Kelly, another possible presidential candidate and the lead co-sponsor of Van Hollen’s bill, brushed off the criticism of the tax cut by saying Trump’s tax cuts went to the rich.

“There are folks that are having a really hard time affording rent and groceries and now health care, because Trump felt the need to give a big tax cut to rich people and he’s partially paying it by kicking people off of Medicaid,” Kelly told HuffPost.

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) noted Democrats have long embraced tax-cut messaging. Even when they pursued a monthly child benefit for parents, with the government giving families checks of up to $300 per child, Democrats insisted on calling it a tax cut rather than a benefit. Now Democrats are going even bigger on the tax cut concept.

“I think now it’s just a lot more direct, and because it is in the political environment that it is now, every time we do anything, it just kind of has a bigger impact,” Gallego told HuffPost.

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Van Hollen acknowledged that Democrats are in something of an “ideas” phase, trying to figure out what will stick.

“I support and continue to support programs that provide a safety net, from food nutrition programs to health care programs, to other programs,” he said. “I don’t see this as an exclusive Democratic proposal, but I do see it as a critical part of our overall effort.”