Demand Taxation Justice from your Members of Congress

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Call Script

Short phone version:

My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.

It’s time for Democrats to once again stand for economic justice for all!

I strongly support full implementation of President Biden’s Made in America Tax Plan as codified in the Budget Resolution. I want you to pass a corporate tax code that incentivizes job creation and investment here in the United States, stops unfair and wasteful profit shifting to tax havens, and ensures that the wealthy few and the large corporations pay their fair share.

To that end, I support Speaker Pelosi’s commitment to delay a final House vote on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill until after the Senate passes and sends to the House a Reconciliation Bill that fully implements the Democratic Party’s climate, housing, child and family, education, health care, and tax justice agenda.

And finally, it is imperative that you include in the Reconciliation Bill a provision that authorizes the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to issue and enforce common sense orders and directives, such as eviction moratoriums, in a national public health emergency to slow the spread of infectious disease.

Longer Email/ResistBot Version:

It’s time for Democrats to once again stand for economic justice for all!

I strongly support full implementation of President Biden’s Made in America Tax Plan as codified in the Budget Resolution. I want you to pass a corporate tax code that incentivizes job creation and investment here in the United States, stops unfair and wasteful profit shifting to tax havens, and ensures that the wealthy few and the large corporations pay their fair share by:

  • Increasing funding for IRS high-income enforcement.

  • Taxing non-wage income (rents, dividends, interest, capital gains) at the same rates as wage income. 

  • Raising  the top personal income tax rate back to 39%. 

  • Closing high-income loopholes in the Medicare tax.

  • Raising the corporate tax rate to 28%. 

  • Reducing job offshoring with a Global Minimum Tax for U.S. multinational corporations. 

  • Preventing corporations from “inverting” or claiming foreign tax havens as their location.

  • Ending corporate deductions for offshoring jobs. 

  • Eliminating the Intellectual Property loophole that encourages offshoring high-paying jobs.

  • Enacting a 15% Minimum Tax on large corporations’ total income regardless of nationality. 

  • Increasing incentives for R&D and production of tangible assets. 

  • Replacing fossil fuel subsidies with incentives for clean energy production.

To achieve these goals, I support Speaker Pelosi’s commitment to delay a final House vote on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill until after the Senate passes and sends to the House a Reconciliation Bill that fully implements the Democratic Party’s climate, housing, child and family, education, health care, and tax justice agenda.

And finally, it is imperative that you include in the Reconciliation Bill a provision that authorizes the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to issue and enforce common sense orders and directives, such as eviction moratoriums, in a national public health emergency to slow the spread of infectious disease.


Background

While most Americans have seen their income stagnate or drop, the corporate elite and super-rich continue to reap more and more and more—at everyone else’s expense. A recent study found that one out of five Fortune 500 companies paid no federal taxes on U.S. income. Another study found that the average large corporation paid just 8% of its income in taxes, compared to the 15-24% paid by their employees. In the first 17 months of the pandemic, the wealth of 708 mega-billionaires increased by an incredible $1.8 trillion, a personal increase for them of 62%, while most of us struggled to stay afloat and avoid eviction. Their personal gain of $1.8 trillion would pay for more than half of Biden’s entire ten-year $3.5 trillion economic recovery package. In some years, some of them, such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, don’t pay a single penny in federal income taxes. That may be fine with senators Manchin and Sinema, but it’s not fine with members of Indivisible. 

If fully enacted without being watered down, President Biden’s Made in America Tax Plan would ensure that corporations pay their fair share in taxes and encourage job creation here at home. Instead of allowing profitable corporations to escape paying taxes by shifting jobs and profits overseas, his plan rewards investment at home, stops profit shifting, and ensures that other nations won’t gain a competitive edge by becoming tax havens.

Every dollar of fair tax revenue that the rich and corporations avoid paying is a dollar not invested in defending against the climate crisis and securing our children, families, and communities. If conservative Democrats allow multinational corporations to continue these obscene tax breaks, President Biden’s economic recovery plan will have to be cut in half. That’s what Democratic senators Manchin, Sinema and 11 of their House colleagues want. But there’s something else they want: for the House to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill (BIB) with its hugely profitable government contracts that high donors from big business and construction long for. If conservatives want the BIB and we want the full American Jobs and Family Plan, the solution is to pass them both together as a package deal. 

References 

The Made in America Tax Plan

Progressives prepare to launch counterattack in tax fight, The Hill, 9/2/21

TELL CONGRESS: RAISE THE FULL $3.5 TRILLION FOR PRESIDENT BIDEN’S BUILD BACK BETTER PLAN…. Americans For Tax Fairness

Here's What's Included In The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill (BIB), NPR, 8/10/21

The American Families Plan Taxes Billionaires and Protects Family Farms and Businesses, Center for American Progress, 8/30/21 

621 STATE GROUPS SUPPORT PRESIDENT BIDEN’S TAX PLAN, Americans for Tax Fairness (a Google Doc)


 

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