New Year, New Goals

(Washington Post)

The Democratic leaders are taking a bold step ahead by starting this year off with an aggressive new "action plan" to reallocate much of the wealth from the extremely rich to the middle class through new taxes on the former and more tax breaks on the latter. Last year, Democrats were criticized for having a lacking or weak approach to income inequality issues, so many see this as a way to toughen up and readjust their stance on the issue.

This plan hopes to also help boost wages and share economic growth (a growth that has recently been only heading more and more towards the top 1%). Many Democrats, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, believes that this bill is only evening out a rigged playing field that is in favor of the rich and powerful through special interests and loopholes (see Wall Street bankers).

With the Republican party majority in Congress, it is evidently unlikely that this radical bill will pass through either chamber. However, as we've learned in class, the motive for proposing a bill in Congress isn't always for it to just get passed. Often times, one party will draft particularly partisan bills just to make a bold statement and set the grounds for debate, which is what I think they're doing in this case. This article also mentions that the Democrats in Congress are hoping to use this bill as a leeway into crafting an alternative, less severe, bill that stops GOP plans to cut tax rates for top earners.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/democrats-in-a-stark-shift-in-messaging-to-make-big-tax-break-pitch-for-middle-class/2015/01/11/d4438468-9999-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html
http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/12/pf/taxes/taxes-middle-class/

Your turn!

1. What other motives do you think the Democrats have to unveil this bill (that will likely get shot down)?

2. Do you agree with this plan?

3. What are other ways the Democrats could possibly go about their goal of evening out income equality through tax cuts?