After a year of unprecedented government spending amid the coronavirus pandemic, how revenue will be collected to pursue future aid and to keep running the United States is under scrutiny. Republican incumbent Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden have significantly disparate views on tax collection in their platforms for the presidency.
Top Earners
Largely, the president would like to keep in place his 2017 income tax cuts (set to expire in 2025) that provided a reduction on the top marginal rate from 40 to 37 percent for the wealthiest earners.
Biden plans to return the rate back to near 40 percent and eliminate the $10,000 cap on state and local deductions that had the effect of raising taxes on households in high-tax states such as New York and California.
Middle-Income Earners
Both candidates say they want to cut taxes on households in the middle brackets. President Trump made a proposal prior to COVID-19 that would have lowered the 22 percent tax bracket down to 15 percent.
Meanwhile, Biden offers more incentivized tax breaks to encourage retirement savings, child care spending, and first-time home buying.
Corporate Taxes
Trump is sticking to the reduction made by his 2017 tax law that lowered corporate taxes to 21 percent from 35 percent.
Challenger Joe Biden would like that rate to be bumped up to 28 percent.
Both men offer plans to create tax incentives for domestic manufacturing.
Capital Gains
The 2020 presidential candidates differ particularly in taxing profits on stocks. President Trump would like to drop the top current rate from 20 percent to 15 percent and has even considered a temporary capital gains tax holiday.
Former Vice President Biden, however, plans to change existing rules in order to tax profits as ordinary income, which could potentially lead to a 40 percent tax on top earners on profits of more than $1 million.
Constituent service platform Indigov recently raised $25 million in a Series B funding round. Indigov bills itself as a constituent relationship management tool that helps elected officials improve the way they organize, respond to, and engage those they serve. The startup's services are being used by federal, state, and local governments across the country, including the U.S. House of Representatives. Alex Kouts, founder & CEO of Indigov, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Cheddar Politics takes a deeper look at the takeaways from the Georgia primary elections on Tuesday. Georgia Public Broadcasting's local and state politics reporter, Stephen Fowler, joins us to discuss the limits of Trump endorsements and break down what the outcome in each race means.
After learning that the suspect in the Uvalde school shooting posted about his intentions on Facebook, activists are urging social networks to make changes. Lena Derhally, a licensed psychotherapist and author of "The Facebook Narcissist," joined Cheddar News to discuss the role social media plays in school shootings. "They're not really invested in taking down hateful content," she said about social platforms."In regards to the shooting, it was 15 minutes before that actual threat. It would be pretty hard for a social media company to trace that threat that quickly. But what they can do better is take down threats and hateful content much faster and more than they're doing now."
Following the mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead, the debate over gun control has been reignited. While studies have shows most Americans agree on some additional regulations, there hasn't been much legislative traction even as gun violence worsens in the country. Brian Lemek, the executive director of Defend The Vote and the former executive director at Brady PAC for gun control, joined Cheddar to discuss reform efforts. "The lawmakers that we have aren't passing these at the federal level," he said. "That's the problem. We have the wrong people in charge."
The crypto industry is still reeling from Terra's recent crash. The company's blockchain was temporarily halted earlier this month after the collapse of its cryptocurrency Luna (LUNA) and its stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), which led to almost $45 billion being wiped from the tokens' market caps within a week. Now, many are left wondering what Terra's struggles mean for the broader crypto market. Reeve Collins, CEO of the NFT platform BLOCKv, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell from Davos 2022 to discuss.
