Congressional Democrats are looking to make sure that tax credits benefiting middle and low-income families are included in any future tax deal.
Unveiling three bills for permanent tax breaks Wednesday, Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., said that “this is an effort to really shift the focus to make clear it includes these vital tax cuts.”
“In terms of the lives of families, these really, really, really matter. That’s why we’re here,” Levin, the ranking Democrat on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters at the Capitol.
Levin and other lawmakers in the House and Senate on Wednesday introduced legislation to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which gives tax breaks for attending college.
The move comes as the White House, congressional Republicans, and businesses are aiming for a deal on business tax reform, one that would lower corporate tax rates and broaden the tax base by ending tax breaks for companies.
“If we’re going to do business tax, we can at least make these changes to address these three key provisions that the president has also been supportive of to help middle class families — not just large multinationals,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who represents an Austin, Texas, district.
All the measures have House and Senate cosponsors. In the Senate, sponsors include Illinois’ Dick Durbin, New York’s Chuck Schumer, and Washington’s Patty Murray, all members of leadership.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said in a statement that “to reform our tax code, we must start in the homes of working Americans — not in corporate boardrooms.”
In recent weeks, Republicans in the House majority have moved bills that would take expired temporary tax breaks known as “extenders” that are frequently extended and make them permanent. Democrats, led by Levin, have criticized Ways and Means chairman Paul Ryan and other Republicans for passing those breaks without replacing the revenue that would be lost, on paper, to the Treasury, and for not including the expiring breaks for families favored by Democrats.
In November, the Obama administration scuttled a potential deal between then-Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republicans to pass a package of extenders on a permanent basis, because it was not paid for and did not include a permanent extension of the Earned Income Tax Credit that Congress expanded during the recession. That expansion, which raised the value of the refundable tax credit for families with several kids and for married couples, is set to expire in 2017.
Levin said Wednesday that Democrats do not want to add their preferred tax breaks to the deficit. Instead, they want them included in a reform deal. Both sides negotiating on tax reform have agreed to aim for deficit neutrality.
Boosting the Earned Income Tax Credit has some support among conservatives. Most notably, Ryan has expressed support for expanding the credit for childless workers.
Democrats on Wednesday expressed hope that they could find common ground on the total package of breaks. “They are not partisan issues,” said Rosa DeLauro, a representative of Connecticut.
