Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is ready to push Democrats to take a tough stance in the 2025 tax fight.
In a big speech today, Warren — who serves on the Senate Finance Committee — will call on fellow Democrats to “stiffen our spines” for the coming tax debate and hold out for a deal that raises taxes on the wealthy, according to excerpts of her remarks we obtained. She’ll be giving the speech at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth’s tax event.
Premium Policy subscribers got this news first. We scooped the sneak peek of Warren’s remarks in The Sunday Vault.
Here’s a bit on what Warren plans to say on the tax debate being spurred by the expiring Trump tax cuts, which will lapse at the end of 2025.
→ Warren will lay out red lines for a tax deal: “At the end of the 2025 tax reform process, large corporations must pay higher taxes. A typical billionaire must pay a higher tax rate than a typical middle-class family. Wealthy tax cheats must be sweating because the IRS has enough money to enforce the law.”
→ Warren plans to warn Democrats to take a tough stance: “A little money for poor children or a modest tax cut for middle-class families is still a lousy deal when we can’t fund childcare or infrastructure because the wealthiest among us are still sucking up billions in tax breaks. Better to let all the Trump tax cuts expire than be accomplices to another slash-and-burn tax bonanza for America’s billionaires.”
→ You should also expect to hear Warren’s takeaways from tax fights past. For one, she’ll address the Wyden-Smith tax deal and criticize it for doing more for corporations than poor families. Warren plans to argue that Senate Republicans still “tanked the deal because they believe they can get even more next year, and Democrats won’t have the spine to stop them.”
Warren’s speech comes as Senate Finance Committee Democrats are set to hold a meeting Thursday kicking off their 2025 prep, which we scooped last week. Warren holds significant sway with Democrats on economic policy, and fellow progressives are also ramping up to influence the big tax debate.
— Laura Weiss
