Sanders Details Tax Plan, Declines Secrecy Offer

WASHINGTON, July 26 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today laid out a series of tax reform proposals in letters to Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and declined an offer by the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee to keep his proposals secret.

The leaders of the tax-writing committee solicited suggestions as part of a push to simplify the tax code. They also pledged to keep senators’ suggestions secret for 50 years at the National Archives. Sanders said he has nothing to hide. “Given the fact that my suggestions represent the interests of the middle class of this country and not powerful corporate special interests, I have no problem with making them public.” To read Sanders’ letters, click here and here and here or go to his Senate website here.

“Everyone understands that our current tax code is too complex and must be simplified, but at a time when the American population is aging and investments in our crumbling infrastructure are desperately needed, we must not provide more tax breaks to profitable corporations and the wealthiest Americans who already are doing phenomenally well and in some cases pay nothing in federal income taxes,” Sanders wrote to Baucus and Hatch.

Sanders is a member of the Senate Budget Committee and helped draft a resolution that the full Senate passed in March calling for $975 billion in new revenue over the next decade by closing tax loopholes that benefit the wealthy and large corporations. “That was a good start. I would go further,” Sanders wrote in letters that spelled out specific proposals to:

See the rest at: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=bee57821-ec0a-408f-a1a6-56143b3e522f