Sanders: Proposed tax deal was ‘crazy’

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said he was glad President Obama threatened to veto a bipartisan tax cut deal.

“This tax cut agreement does exactly the wrong things,” Sanders said. “I strongly support the president’s decision to veto it.”

{mosads}Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) were working on a deal to restore several lapsed tax breaks, but Obama threatened to veto the bill because it favored businesses over middle-class families.

“At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, it extends huge tax cuts to the rich and large corporations while threatening programs that help low-income children,” Sanders said. “At a time when we need to reverse climate change and aggressively move to sustainable energy, this agreement fails to eliminate tax benefits for the fossil fuel industry but phases out tax credits for wind and solar. This is pretty crazy stuff.”

The deal would have extended top priorities for the business community, such as faster write-offs for expenses, and research and development credits, but didn’t extend tax breaks for low-income families championed by Democrats.

Lawmakers are working to extend tax breaks before the 2015 tax-filing season, and both chambers are scheduled to adjourn for the year in just two weeks.