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Washington, D.C. - Today, the President’s Advisory Panel on Tax Reform issued its long-awaited recommendations for tax reform, preserving tax cuts for the rich while reducing and eliminating important tax deductions relied upon by middle-income families and state and local governments.
The President’s Panel recommended eliminating the deduction for state and local taxes, capping the deduction for employer-provided health insurance, reducing the home mortgage interest deduction and substantially reducing the deduction for charitable giving. Significantly, the Panel recommended reducing and eliminating these deductions important to middle-income taxpayers while preserving, and even increasing, tax cuts that benefit only the very rich.
“The Panel’s recommendations are unfair and unwise,” said Ways and Means Ranking Democrat Charles Rangel. “The Bush Administration must show leadership by rejecting these proposals that, if enacted, would hurt millions of hard-working Americans and working in a bipartisan fashion to develop realistic proposals for tax reform that fairly distribute the tax burden across income levels and the States.”
Rep. Rangel further stated, “In 1984, the Treasury Department, like the Panel today, recommended proposals for tax reform that were similarly unwise and not politically feasible. President Reagan was forced to respond to the public outcry and offer a workable plan for tax reform that was enacted into law. President Bush must do the same.”
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