4 minEconomy
Weingarten urges voters to back a working-class tax cut before midterms
American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten argues that a tax cut for working and middle-class families, paid for by a surcharge on millionaires and billionaires, is the fastest way to ease the affordability crisis ahead of the November 3 elections.
American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten argues that the fastest way to ease the cost-of-living squeeze is to return cash to working and middle-class families through the Working Americans’ Tax Cut Act, and she is urging voters to elect a Congress committed to passing it in the November 3 midterm elections. In a commentary published by Fortune, she writes that families are paying more for gasoline, groceries and housing, and she contends that the average family is spending $4,200 more on basic necessities since President Donald Trump returned to office.
Under the proposal, as Weingarten describes it, the first $46,000 of income for individuals and $92,000 for married couples would be exempt from federal income taxes entirely. She offers several examples: a new graduate earning less than $46,000 would pay no federal income tax, a nurse or teacher earning $50,000 would receive a tax cut of about $2,800, and a family of four earning $95,000 would receive a $6,000 reduction. She describes the relief as widespread and cites estimates from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that the measure would benefit 130 million Americans, including 25 million children.
Weingarten says the bill would not add to the national debt because it would be financed by a new tiered surcharge on millionaires and billionaires, applied to wages as well as other income such as capital gains and investments. She cites a Yale Budget Lab estimate that the surcharge would raise $1.46 trillion over 10 years. She argues that this structure would make the tax code more progressive and reward work, and she says it is unfair for a hedge fund manager or billionaire to pay less in federal taxes than a teacher or firefighter.
Weingarten also takes aim at the current Congress. She writes that congressional Republicans have refused to consider the bill and have already adjourned. She characterizes the body’s recent record as one of acquiescence to the demands of the president, pointing to the measure the administration calls the Big Beautiful Bill, which she says delivered $1.3 trillion in tax cuts to the wealthy while reducing spending on healthcare and food assistance and raising student loan payments. She adds that some of the law’s most harmful effects do not take effect until January.
Her case also rests on recent price increases that she attributes to the president’s war with Iran and to the domestic policy agenda. According to her figures, Americans are paying on average 50 percent more for a gallon of gas since the Iran war began, and heating oil is up 60 percent. She says the average family will pay $4,000 more on student loans because of the Big Beautiful Bill, that people who buy coverage through the Affordable Care Act have seen premiums rise by 50 percent, that grocery prices are 4 percent higher than when Trump took office, and that families have spent an additional $833 on housing costs.
Weingarten acknowledges that the tax cut is not a complete solution. She says advocates must still press to make healthcare and college affordable, raise the minimum wage, guarantee secure retirement and strengthen workers’ right to join unions. She frames the proposal as a step toward restoring what she calls the basic American bargain that hard work should allow a family to live decently, and she says that goal depends on electing majorities in Congress willing to pass the bill.
12
