Rep. Jared Golden writes:

For years, Democrats have made promises to American voters: Elect us, and we will lower the cost of prescription drugs. Elect us, and we will expand access to affordable health care. Elect us, and we will strengthen labor laws to protect the rights of workers. Elect us, and we will deliver important, common-sense reform to make life better for people in the working middle class.

Last week, we found out that Democratic party leaders also have been making other promises, this time to the donor class: A $275 billion tax break for millionaires and the very wealthy over five years. This giveaway is engineered by lifting the cap on the state and local tax deduction.

The facts of this proposal aren’t subject to serious dispute. Just 1.2 percent of the tax cuts would go to the lowest 60 percent of earners: those making less than $96,000 a year. Their average tax cut: less than $7 a year. Meanwhile, millionaire households would receive tax cuts averaging $15,590 a year.

That much money going to rich people adds up quickly. In fact, it’s the largest single provision within the Build Back Better Act right now. State and local tax deduction proponents are sticking to a misleading claim that their proposal would be “paid for” by extending the cap beyond its current expiration date of 2025. This offset looks good on paper, but it is largely a shell game that masks the true cost of this scheme, an increase in the debt of more than half a trillion dollars over the next decade.

To add insult to injury, this provision applies retroactively, allowing wealthy people to rake in windfalls from the past year, while the programs in the Build Back Better Act that would help working middle class people — like capping out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for seniors — are delayed or expire after just a few years. [Continue reading…]