While President Obama and other Democrats frequently talk about the need for “shared sacrifice” and a “balanced” approach to deficit reduction, their proposal to raise taxes $418 billion is a grab bag of liberal favorites: ending tax breaks for oil companies and corporate jet companies, as well as reducing deductions for couples earning more than $250,000 per year.
While ending the corporate jet tax break will save only $3 billion over the next 10 years, ending a tax break for one big Democratic constituency–unions–could generate ten times as much revenue over the same period.
A conservative estimate for annual union dues nationwide is $8 billion, according to the National Right to Work’s Stan Greer. If over ten years $80 billion in union dues were taxed, the federal government could generate roughly $30 billion in tax revenue.
If the president wants a truly balanced approach to ending tax breaks, perhaps he should ask unions to pay their fair share as well.
