Sen. Chuck Schumer (Jason Reed/Reuters)
Senate Democrats intend to push a
new strategy of tax reform based on the proposals outlined in President Obama's State of the Union. Rather than using the basic foundation of the 1986 tax reform with some tweaking, a handful of lawmakers have been talking tax reform using the template of the current system. But that's changing.
“Tax reform after the president's speech now has a different definition,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday.
“We intend to pursue a different kind of tax reform that borrows from the president's proposals," Schumer, a leader in crafting Democratic messaging, told reporters. [...]
“Don't underestimate the chances of Congress to enact parts of the president's blueprint,” Schumer also said Wednesday. “Republicans will not go along out of a desire to cooperate, but they may find they have to out of political necessity.”
The "Buffett Rule" proposed by Obama—that anyone making $1 million or more pay at least 30 percent in taxes—and setting a minimum amount of taxes that multinational corporations have to pay will likely be cornerstones of the proposal. They will also target the "carried interest" tax break on capital gains, the tax break that allows Mitt Romney to pay just 14 percent of his income in taxes.