Iowa Congressman Bruce Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, says he is introducing a bill that would extend tax cuts to the so-called middle class for two years, while letting tax cuts for those who make over $250,000 a year stay in place. Fellow Democrat, President Barack Obama, called for the extension in his visit to eastern Iowa Tuesday. Braley says he’s pushed for the same thing in the past and it’s not an election year proposal.
“The reason why it’s timely now is because House Republicans are going to be bringing a bill to the House floor to extend all the Bush tax cuts. And the Senate is going to be taking action at well,” Braley says. Braley says Iowa Department of Revenue figures show 99-percent of Iowans report income under $250,000 each year.
He says allowing the cuts to expire for those who make over $250,000 would help cut an estimated $850-million from the federal deficit over 10 years. “When so many people are calling for us to take steps to reduce the deficit, and those same people are critical of efforts to try to reduce the deficit by not extending tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, which has had a profound affect on the deficit, I think that’s something that voters do care about. And my constituents do care about — because we talked about it at my interactive town hall meetings,” according to Braley.
He says his bill takes a balanced approach to create “fiscal responsibility.” “Which is looking at targeted spending cuts and targeted revenue increases. And my bill does that by finding new revenue from those few Americans that have benefited the most while others have suffered under the recession,” Braley says.
Braley says his bill would protect a reduced capital gains tax rate for these taxpayers making under $250,000 and for those who make more than that amount, the capital gains tax rate would revert to a top rate of 20%. Braley is running for re-election in the new first district and is being challenged by Republican Ben Lange of Independence.