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A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Bob Keener, 617-423-2148 ext 120, bkeener@faireconomy.org

New Tax Day Report on Obama's Tax Proposals

Obama's Tax Proposals Could Raise More Revenue, Be More Progressive and Clamp Down Harder on Wall Street Speculation, New Tax Day Report Finds

BOSTON

A new report from United for a Fair Economy (UFE) concludes that
President Obama's tax proposals could be sharply improved to raise $300
billion more per year in revenue. The report also finds that
improvements would make the taxes more progressive and reduce
incentives for extreme financial risk-taking.

Designed to be accessible to average taxpayers, "Safe, Fair and Sustainable: Do President Obama's Tax Proposals Measure Up?" studies a selection of tax proposals contained in Obama's budget and rates them on key criteria.

"As Congress decides the specifics of tax plans that will impact
whether and how we fund bold new initiatives for the country, taxpayers
need to advocate for what they want," said Lee Farris, Federal Tax
Policy Coordinator at UFE and co-author of the report. "The economic
hardship facing ordinary Americans right now makes evaluating the
impact of important tax policy choices all the more vital."

The report analyzes the proposals in President Obama's FY2010 budget
that focus on high-income taxpayers and compares them to a set of tax
proposals from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) in its report,
"Reversing the Great Tax Shift: Seven Steps to Finance Our Economic
Recovery Fairly." UFE's report finds that with increased taxes on the
wealthy, Obama's plan would be able to raise about $300 billion more
per year. It also finds that Obama's proposals could be more
progressive, making taxpayers who have more wealth and income pay a
higher rate. Finally, UFE finds that Obama's proposal could do much
more to reduce the tax incentives that led to the recent crisis on Wall
Street.

The UFE report is available from UFE's website at https://faireconomy.org/reports/tax_day_2009.
The IPS report is available at https://www.ips-dc.org/reports/#1207.

United for a Fair Economy is a non-partisan organization that helps
people of all races, ethnicities and classes work to reduce economic
inequality.

United for a Fair Economy challenges the concentration of wealth and power that corrupts democracy, deepens the racial divide and tears communities apart. We use popular economics education, trainings, and creative communications to support social movements working for a resilient, sustainable and equitable economy. United for a Fair Economy believes another world is possible. We envision a global society which respects the humanity, rights, and creativity of all people.