A new report estimates 186,000 middle class Iowa households will pay more taxes under plans that are pending in the U.S. Senate. Mike Owen of the Iowa Policy Project said half of the tax cuts would go to the top one percent of wealthy Iowans.
“Under that analysis those tax cuts to the top one percent would average $50,000 in 2018 alone,” Owen said.
That analysis of the Iowa impact comes from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. A senate committee is scheduled to vote soon on a federal spending plan that will lay the groundwork for tax cuts. Seth Hanlon, a tax policy advisor to President Obama, is now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He spoke this morning to Iowa reporters who joined a conference call organized by the Iowa Policy Project.
“I think what we’re seeing is massive tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires,” Hanlon said, “and mystery meat for the middle class.”
ReShonda Young is a small business owner from Waterloo whose “Popcorn Heaven” outlets now operate in five locations. During the conference call, Young said the business tax cuts proposed by Republicans won’t lower her taxes.
“It will not help small businesses,” Young said. “In fact, the budget cuts will hurt small businesses like mine and make us less able to compete with the large corporations that take advantage of unfair loopholes.”
Young is urging Senator Chuck Grassley to vote against the budget plan coming up for a vote in the Senate Budget Committee that sets a framework for the GOP’s tax cuts. Republicans say they’re aiming for tax cuts that will stimulate economic growth. The GOP also argues it’s impossible to determine the full impact of the party’s tax cut package yet because the details are still being worked out.