WASHINGTON — United States Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) joined 40 colleagues and urged Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin against cutting capital gains taxes for the wealthiest Americans by an additional $100 billion over 10 years, an action that would defy longstanding Justice Department policy.
The request follows a letter signed by 21 Republican senators urging Secretary Mnuchin to circumvent Congress and index capital gains rates to inflation.
“Indexing capital gains would double down on the 2017 $1.5 trillion tax giveaway with at least another $100 billion tax cut. According to the Penn-Wharton Budget Model, more than 86 percent of the benefit of indexing capital gains would go to the top 1 percent of taxpayers, while just 2.5 percent of the benefit would go to the bottom 90 percent of Americans,” the Senators wrote.
View the full letter below:
Here's the letter that was written by the 21 Republican senators:
Along with Warner, and Kaine the letter is signed by Senators Ron Wyden, (D-OR), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Jack Reed (D-RI), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Angus King (I-ME), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ed Markey (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Bob Casey (D-PA), Tom Carper (D-DE), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Tom Udall (D-NM), Tina Smith (D-MN), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Patty Murray (D-WA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Pat Leahy (D-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Gary Peters (D-MI), Chris Coons (D-DE), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM).
