In order to keep Medicare solvent, Democrats want to tax high-income earners

Democratic aides told The Associated Press that the party wants to hike taxes on some high earners in an election-year effort to form a scaled-back version of the economic package that collapsed last year.

Democrat aides said they plan to submit legislative language for Medicare to the Senate's parliamentarian in the next few days. It was the latest sign that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va, could be edging toward a compromise the party hopes to push through Congress this summer over solid Republican opposition. Manchin scuttled last year’s bill.

It proposed a 3.8% tax on pass-through business earnings for those earning more than $400,000 a year and couples earning more than $500,000. In the past, many have avoided paying this tax by using a loophole.

Schumer and Manchin have been bargaining privately for weeks on a package aides say could include around $500 billion in spending and tax credits, more than paid for with about $1 trillion in revenue and other savings. Schumer has described the talks as productive but acknowledged that some issues remain unresolved.

7 July 2022