A document obtained by several news agencies last week shows Democrats preparing to target tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations as part of congressional negotiations to meet a Dec. 13 deadline for a budget deal.<\/p>\n
Not on the list of Democrats’ targets: tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry.<\/p>\n
The Hill<\/em> reported<\/a> that the list<\/p>\n contains 12 examples of the types of \u201ctax loopholes\u201d that [Democrats] would like to see closed in a year-end budget deal. Most have been proposed many times before.<\/p>\n Combined, the items on the list would raise $264 billion in revenue over 10 years, more than enough to switch off two years’ worth of the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Bloomberg<\/em> reported<\/a> that<\/p>\n In addition to closing what Democrats call the \u201cJohn Edwards\/Newt Gingrich loophole,\u201d the party’s list of options includes carried-interest treatment that allows hedge fund managers and private equity advisers to pay a 20 percent tax rate on their income instead of the nation’s top income rate of 39.6 percent. Ending that break would save more than $17 billion over a decade, according to the Democrats’ estimates.<\/p>\n Another lets U.S. companies deduct their expenses when they send their plants overseas, which Democrats say encourages offshoring of American jobs. It would raise $200 million. Ending preferences for corporate jets and subsidies for yachts and vacation homes, combined, would bring in another $19 billion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n “The list makes clear that Democrats believe they can win public support by targeting tax breaks that they can portray as subsidies for the rich,” according to Reuters<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Republicans have been demanding cuts<\/a> in Social Security and Medicare in exchange for changes to sequestration spending cuts, and that has failed to be met<\/a> by a widespread Democratic pushback.<\/p>\n Progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have called<\/a> for and “End [to] tax breaks and subsidies for oil, gas and coal companies to reduce the deficit by more than $113 billion over the next 10 years”\u2013a call echoed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s “Back to Work Budget,<\/a>” which calls for an elimination of corporate tax subsidies for oil, gas, and coal companies.<\/p>\n But preserving tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry appears to have widspread bipartisan consensus.<\/p>\n Fossil fuel companies not being on the list of dozen targets may be a result of Democrats’ “embrace” of fossil fuels, the Financial Times<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n