To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to apply current income tax bracket breakpoints to capital gains brackets.
Sponsored by
Rep. Barr, Andy [R-KY-6]
ID: B001282
Bill's Journey to Becoming a Law
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4. Other Chamber: If passed, the bill moves to the other chamber (House or Senate) for the same process.
5. Conference: If both chambers pass different versions, a conference committee reconciles the differences.
6. Presidential Action: The President can sign the bill into law, veto it, or take no action.
7. Became Law: If signed (or if Congress overrides a veto), the bill becomes law!
Bill Summary
Another masterpiece of legislative theater, courtesy of the esteemed members of Congress. Let's dissect this farce and uncover the real disease beneath.
**Main Purpose & Objectives:** The "Middle Class Savings Act" (because who doesn't love a good Orwellian title?) claims to help middle-class Americans by adjusting capital gains tax brackets to match current income tax bracket breakpoints. How noble. In reality, this bill is a cleverly crafted Trojan horse designed to benefit the wealthy and large corporations.
**Key Provisions & Changes to Existing Law:** The bill proposes to amend Section 1(j)(5)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code by increasing the capital gains tax brackets to match current income tax bracket breakpoints. Sounds innocuous, right? Wrong. This change would primarily benefit high-income individuals and corporations with significant capital gains, allowing them to pay lower taxes on their investments.
**Affected Parties & Stakeholders:** The usual suspects will be affected:
* High-net-worth individuals who can afford to invest in the stock market and reap the benefits of lower capital gains tax rates. * Large corporations that generate substantial profits from investments and can now enjoy reduced tax liabilities. * Middle-class Americans, who will likely see minimal to no benefits from this bill, despite its misleading title.
**Potential Impact & Implications:** This bill is a classic case of "trickle-down economics" – the wealthy get richer, while the middle class gets crumbs. By reducing capital gains taxes for high-income earners and corporations, Congress is essentially providing a tax break to those who need it least. This will:
* Exacerbate income inequality by further enriching the already wealthy. * Reduce government revenue, potentially leading to increased deficits or cuts in essential public services. * Create a new avenue for tax avoidance and exploitation by clever accountants and lawyers.
In conclusion, HR 2908 is a masterclass in legislative deception. It's a bill that claims to help the middle class but actually serves the interests of the wealthy and powerful. As I always say, "Everyone lies" – especially politicians. This bill is just another symptom of the deeper disease afflicting our political system: corruption, greed, and a complete disregard for the well-being of ordinary citizens.
Diagnosis: Terminal Stupidity (TS) with symptoms of Legislative Deception Syndrome (LDS). Prognosis: Poor. Treatment: None available, as the patient is already deceased – killed by its own incompetence and greed.
Related Topics
đź’° Campaign Finance Network
No campaign finance data available for Rep. Barr, Andy [R-KY-6]
Project 2025 Policy Matches
This bill shows semantic similarity to the following sections of the Project 2025 policy document. Higher similarity scores indicate stronger thematic connections.
Introduction
— 698 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise Fundamental Tax Reform. Achieving fundamental tax reform offers the prospect of a dramatic improvement in American living standards and an equally dramatic reduction in tax compliance costs. Lobbyists, lawyers, benefit consul- tants, accountants, and tax preparers would see their incomes decline, however. The federal income tax system heavily taxes capital and corporate income and discourages work, savings, and investment. The public finance literature is clear that a consumption tax would minimize government’s distortion of private economic decisions and thus be the least eco- nomically harmful way to raise federal tax revenues.28 There are several forms that a consumption tax could take, including a national sales tax, a business transfer tax, a Hall–Rabushka flat tax,29 or a cash flow tax.30 Supermajority to Raise Taxes. Treasury should support legislation instituting a three-fifths vote threshold in the U.S. House and the Senate to raise income or corporate tax rates to create a wall of protection for the new rate structure. Many states have implemented such a supermajority vote requirement. Tax Competition. Tax competition between states and countries is a positive force for liberty and limited government.31 The Biden Administration, under the direction of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, has pushed for a global minimum corporate tax that would increase taxation and the size of government in the U.S. and around the world. This attempt to “harmonize” global tax rates is an attempt to create a global tax cartel to quash tax competition and to increase the tax burden globally. The U.S. should not outsource its tax policy to international organizations. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The Organi- zation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in conjunction with the European Union, has long tried to end financial privacy and impose regulations on countries with low (or no) income taxes. In fact, on tax, environmental, corpo- rate governance and employment issues, the OECD has become little more than a taxpayer-funded left-wing think tank and lobbying organization.32 The United States provides about one-fifth of OECD’s funding.33 The U.S. should end its finan- cial support and withdraw from the OECD. TAX ADMINISTRATION The Internal Revenue Service is a poorly managed, utterly unresponsive and increasingly politicized agency, and has been for at least two decades. It is time for meaningful reform to improve the efficiency and fairness of tax administration, better protect taxpayer rights, and achieve greater transparency and accountability. A substantial number of the problems attributed to the IRS are actually a function of congressional action that has made the Internal Revenue Code ridiculously complex, imposed tremendous administrative burdens on both the public and the IRS, and given massive non-tax missions to the IRS. But the culture, administrative practices, and management at the IRS need to change. — 699 — Department of the Treasury Doubling the IRS? The Inflation Reduction Act contains a radical $80 billion expansion of the IRS—enough to double the size of its workforce.34 Unless Congress reverses this policy, the IRS will become much more intrusive and impose still greater costs on the American people. The Biden Administration has also sought to make the tax system’s adminis- trative burden much worse in other ways. For example, it has proposed creating a comprehensive financial account information reporting regime that would apply to all business and personal accounts with more than $600. Banks would be required to collect the taxpayer identification numbers of and file a revised Form 1099-K for all affected payees, as well as provide additional information.35 This massive increase in the scope and breadth of information reporting should be unequivo- cally opposed. Management. The IRS has approximately 81,000 employees.36 Of those, only two are presidential appointments—the Commissioner and the Chief Counsel.37 As a practical matter, it is impossible for these two officials to overcome bureau- cratic inertia and to implement policy changes that the IRS bureaucracy wants to impede. That is why, notwithstanding decades of sound and fury, almost nothing has changed at the IRS. For the IRS to change and become more accountable, more transparent, and better managed, there is a need to increase the number of Presidential appoint- ments subject to Senate confirmation, and not subject to Senate confirmation, at the IRS. At the very least, Congress should ensure that the Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement, the Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support, the National Taxpayer Advocate, the Commissioner of the Wage and Investment Division, the Commissioner of the Large Business and International Division, the Commissioner of the Small Business Self-Employed Division, and the Com- missioner of the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division are presidential appointees.38 Information Technology. Despite the investment of billions of dollars for at least two decades, IRS information technology (IT) systems remain deficient.39 The IRS inadequately protects taxpayer information, its IT systems do not ade- quately support operations or taxpayer services, and its matching and detection algorithms are antiquated. These problems are not primarily about resources. The IRS has spent approxi- mately $27 billion on IT during the past decade, with $7 billion of that designated as “development, modernization and enhancement.“40 The problem is one of man- agement. The bureaucracy is not up to the task, and neither Congress nor a long line of IRS commissioners has forced changes. A Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support with strong IT management skills should be appointed by the IRS Commissioner or the President (once the position is made a presidential appointment). The various subordinates to the
About These Correlations
Policy matches are calculated using semantic similarity between bill summaries and Project 2025 policy text. A score of 60% or higher indicates meaningful thematic overlap. This does not imply direct causation or intent, but highlights areas where legislation aligns with Project 2025 policy objectives.