Little-Known Project 2025 Policy Would Tax Benefits for More Than 15 Million Workers | Common Dreams
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"Organized conservative constituencies for the corporate class got everything they wanted in the first Trump administration," wrote one economist. "There's no reason to expect this time to be different."

Project 2025, the right-wing policy blueprint spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation and co-authored by more than 100 former Trump administration staffers, has been denounced for several of its tax proposals, including slashing the corporate tax rate and the capital gains tax to benefit wealthy Americansā€”but a research group on Wednesday warned that one economic policy that hasnā€™t gotten much attention could ā€œgreatly increaseā€ financial hardships for millions of working families.

EPI Action, a nonpartisan research and advocacy organization affiliated with the Economic Policy Institute, published an analysis of a proposal that appears on page 7 of Project 2025ā€™s section on the Treasury Departmentā€”whose authors include at least two people who served on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trumpā€™s campaign and transition team for his term in office.

The proposal calls to tax employers on workplace benefits that exceed $12,000 per worker annuallyā€”which would undoubtedly ā€œlead to employers cutting back on these benefits,ā€ wrote Josh Bivens, chief economist for EPI Action.

Based on health insurance benefits that are provided to more than 150 million Americans through their employers, Bivens found, more than 15 million workers would see their benefits taxed under the Project 2025 plan.

Those workers would collectively pay over $12 billion more in taxes if their employers shifted away from providing benefits as a cost-cutting measure.

    • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.worldEnglish
      17Ā·
      29 days ago

      I think itā€™s even more malicious than that.

      As is so often said around here, ā€œthe cruelty is the point.ā€ Fleecing the working and middle class is definitely a huge goal, probably the main goal. But they want to do it in a way that demoralizes the average American. The backers of Project 2025 want to break the spirit of the majority of Americans so we are more subservient, to both their continued fleecing and to their oppressive authority. And the best way to do that is to install division and self-hatred, and take away our voice.