President Trump probably won’t see a thank-you note from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, despite the latter’s direct benefit from the former’s tax policy. Charles Fain Lehman of the Washington Free Beacon explains.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) saved roughly $38,000 in taxes thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the Republican-passed tax cut championed by President Donald Trump which the New York Times recently admitted cut most Americans’ taxes.
Sanders released ten years’ worth of tax returns Monday night, fulfilling a long-standing promise to do so. The returns indicated that Sanders is now a millionaire, having collected more than $1 million in 2016 and 2017 thanks to the sales from his books Our Revolution and Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution.
Sanders dodged questions about his new-found wealth during a Monday night townhall on Fox, declining to say if he would pay a top tax rate of 52 percent, the highest bracket proposed during his 2016 run for the White House. He also did not respond to a question from Fox’s Martha MacCallum about if he would voluntarily give money to the government to bring his tax bill up to what he thought a fair rate was.
If he did, or if his tax plan were implemented, Sanders would increase his tax liability by nearly 30 percent, analysis of his tax returns indicates.
Sanders has not announced any substantive changes to the income tax system during his 2020 run. However, during his 2016 run, Sanders floated a comprehensive overhaul to the tax system in order to help pay for his proposed Medicare-for-All plan.
