Press Release

As Trump Tax Cuts Near Expiration, New Plan Charts Path to Economic Fairness

10. 30. 2024

With election near and consequential policy fight around the corner, ESP releases Equity & Prosperity Tax Agenda

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Economic Security Project (ESP) unveiled a bold tax reform agenda today aimed at building a more equitable and prosperous economy for all Americans. The new platform, The Equity & Prosperity Agenda: A Tax Plan to Promote a Fair, Inclusive, and Competitive Economy, arrives ahead of the election and as Congress prepares for a pivotal debate over the nation’s tax code, with the Trump-era Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) set to expire in 2025. This expiration represents the most significant opportunity for comprehensive tax reform, and for broader economic reform, in decades. 

“The leaders we elect to represent us in Washington next week will have a generational opportunity to reshape the economy, set off by the expiration of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Ahead of this election and the looming 2025 tax fight, we’re releasing The Equity and Prosperity Agenda to posit a vision of a tax system that is fairer at the top and the bottom of the income ladder. This moment is one we can seize on to center what matters most: rightsizing vast and growing inequality, helping families deal with rising costs, and investing in our nation’s priorities and values,” said Adam Ruben, Vice President of Campaigns and Political Strategy at Economic Security Project. “For decades, our tax code has favored billionaires and corporations over working families. We can flip the script and make the ultrarich and large corporations pay their fair share so we can invest in what really builds prosperity: putting cash in families’ pockets, in addition to funding healthcare, quality childcare, bridges and roads, and housing that families can actually afford.”

The tax platform builds on ESP’s success in advocating for policies that put more money into people’s pockets and in fighting monopolies and the corporate concentration of power. The agenda outlines how to achieve a modern tax code that promotes fairness for consumers, workers, and small businesses by ensuring the wealthiest corporations and billionaires at the top pay their fair share. Specific tax policy proposals identified in the agenda include:

  • Expanding the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit
  • Raising the corporate alternative minimum tax
  • Imposing a graduated corporate tax rate
  • Ending tax breaks that reward anti-competitive corporate mergers 
  • Closing the door to offshore tax havens and enacting a global minimum corporate tax 
  • Raising taxes on stock buybacks to encourage investment in workers and innovation
  • Reducing incentives for financialization to reverse the harm corporate power has wrought in communities of color.