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tax justice
Join the ‘Stop the Billionaire Giveaway’ Bus Tour to Fight the GOP’s Big Ugly Budget Bill
We’ve seen firsthand that once people learn what is in this harmful tax and budget bill, they strongly oppose it. When they turn out and demonstrate their opposition, or call or write their member of Congress, that makes a difference.
Jun 25, 2025
As the big, ugly GOP budget bill moves through Congress, advocates for a fair economy are hitting the road. Two organizations—Fair Share America and Unrig Our Economy—are bringing experts and stakeholders on a “Stop the Billionaire Giveaway” bus tour to publicize the high stakes in this budget debate. After a kick-off on June 21, the bus will travel to 14 states, from New York to California, to rally the public against a bill that would do more to increase inequality than any other single piece of legislation in U.S. history.
To learn more about the strategy behind the tour, we spoke to Kristen Crowell, executive director of Fair Share America, who plans to be on the bus for the whole 4,000 miles.
Inequality.org: This is a tough organizing environment, with Republicans in control of the Senate, the House, and the White House. How will you give people hope about the chances of influencing this budget debate?
We’ve seen firsthand that once people learn what is in this harmful tax and budget bill, they strongly oppose it. When they turn out and demonstrate their opposition, or call or write their member of Congress, that makes a difference.
Over 50% of people who voted for President Donald Trump a mere eight months ago are opposed to the tax and budget plans in this bill.
For each stop on our bus tour, we have worked with state and local partners to organize rallies, a roundtable, or a similar public event where people can speak out, share their stories, and take part in a growing national movement to oppose this bill and advocate for fair budgets that pay for the things we need and don’t give trillions of our tax dollars away to the billionaire class.
We can still stop this bill.
Inequality.org: Tell us more about the people you’ve already heard from in various states. What are they saying?
Over the past couple of months, I’ve had the privilege of speaking to thousands of people at town hall meetings, while knocking on doors, and while hosting tele-town hall meetings where over 200,000 people joined our lines to hear about what is happening in Washington.
People are angry and afraid about losing the lifelines they and their families depend on and they are mobilizing to make sure their voices of opposition are heard. In many communities, their own GOP member of Congress won’t meet with them, which is infuriating. This is one of the reasons Fair Share America has created public forums for people to show up, learn the truth, and speak out. That’s what we’re continuing to do this summer with the bus tour and beyond.
Inequality.org: We’ve seen the polling on both sides. Some of the tax provisions like “no taxes on tips” are pretty popular. How are you getting the message across that this bill would not benefit most Americans?
Public polling has been consistent. Nearly 80% of the public is opposed to this bill once they learn about what’s in it. We see this mirrored in our canvassing efforts as well. The opposition even crosses the political spectrum. Over 50% of people who voted for President Donald Trump a mere eight months ago are opposed to the tax and budget plans in this bill. While there may be support for some individual provisions, when presented with the whole package, voters understand that these giveaways are skewed to the ultra-wealthy and benefit working people very little.
States will either have to slash services or raise local taxes to make up the loss in federal funds.
There’s also a ton in this bill that working people would lose: When people realize that nearly 16 million people would lose healthcare coverage their opposition strengthens even further. It is crystal clear: The public largely does not support this budget and will not be bought off with small crumbs while the ultra-rich would have huge financial gains.
Inequality.org: Many states are finalizing their own budgets this month. How can states expect the reconciliation bill to impact their budgets?
The GOP reconciliation bill would shift massive costs onto states in several ways that would blow a hole in carefully crafted state budgets. It includes historic new cost-sharing rules that would force states to cover the costs for SNAP. It imposes costly and burdensome paperwork requirements on states and people for Medicaid, significantly reducing the federal funding for the key healthcare program.
In addition to the direct loss of federal funding to the states, the bill also blocks states from raising their own funds for essential programs, targeting provider taxes which fund Medicaid and undercutting the municipal bond market which funds local schools, hospitals, and infrastructure projects. In short, the GOP budget blows a hole in states’ budgets and ties their hands on key issues, just to fund $1.1 trillion in tax handouts to the rich.
States will either have to slash services or raise local taxes to make up the loss in federal funds. Many are already planning for special legislative sessions should this harmful GOP Budget pass.
Inequality.org: You’re planning to be on the bus for the full three weeks of the tour. What’s one tip you can share about how to keep up your energy over all those miles?
Over the past several months, being with and among the American public as Fair Share America and our local partners have held events around the country has been one of the greatest privileges of my organizing career (you can read more about Kristen’s organizing background here).
Hitting the road this summer and getting to be with people who are scared and hurting but doing something powerful together to make change keeps me going. Several of my children will also be joining me on the bus during this tour, and I want to show them a strong example of what it means to stand up for our values. I’ve been working in the tax justice space for a long time and look forward to seeing old friends and new allies along the route. It truly will be one of the greatest months of my life. My love of strong, black coffee doesn’t hurt!
Learn more and sign up for updates about the “Stop the Billionaire Giveaway” bus tour.
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In 2025, States Will Flip the Script on Taxes to Make the Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share
State-based advocates have spent years building coalitions of pro-revenue champions committed to working together to fund the programs communities need.
Jan 08, 2025
After every big election, there’s a spotlight on the candidates that came out on top: Who’s in and who’s out, talk about mandates, seat margins, and the First 100 days.
There’s plenty of policy previews about next year.
But one issue will have a starring role both in Washington, D.C. and in states across the country—taxes.
We know Republicans in Washington are writing a play to extend and even expand President-elect Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. And nearly every state will have to adapt to additional fiscal pressures while also finding ways to pay for the things our families and communities need.
We know the vast majority of Americans want the rich to pay more, not less, in taxes—at both the state and federal level. It’s time for elected officials to give the people what they want after years of disappointing performances.
Past sessions foreshadow how anti-tax elected officials around the country will act on behalf of their donors: Each time Republicans have held a trifecta in Washington this century, they’ve demanded tax cuts for the rich. During Covid-19, 26 states cut taxes, often targeting top earners, which will cost $124 billion by 2028.
We’ve seen this show before and it stinks.
The plot is tired, unbelievable, and relegates voters to a bit part, when it’s our communities that should be the lead. How many times do we have to listen to the same trickle-down economic nonsense? It’s getting old.
Polling shows that voters would rather politicians play it straight and raise revenue from big business and the wealthy rather than feel the squeeze as tax cuts lead to budget cuts to the programs and services our kids and communities need most.
Flipping the script on tax cuts for the wealthy is a core reason the State Revenue Alliance was created. Voters feel the economy isn’t working for them and want corporations and billionaire CEOs to pay their fair share. Ultimately in 2025, it’s the people who’ve too often been shut out of policy debates who will fight for tax justice and change the trajectory of tax policy in this country.
Knowing that 2025 would see a confluence of tax fights at the state and federal level, state-based advocates have spent years building coalitions of pro-revenue champions committed to working together and will have the resources to fight for good schools, housing affordability, and accessible healthcare in legislatures around the country.
Together, we’ve made real, tangible, and, yes, sustainable progress in our collective efforts to win pro-revenue policies. In 2024 alone, state-based grassroots organizations, labor groups, policy shops, and legislators supported 35 tax justice bills in state capitols. Six of those bills passed and were signed into law. Those bills included wealth taxes; corporate tax reform; reinstatement or creation of capital gains taxes; repealing certain tax breaks, which too often allowed the wealthiest to shield their assets; and more.
In anticipation of this year, we are already tracking nearly 50 tax justice bills filed in state capitols. When legislative sessions open early next year, our allies will be ready, putting forth a compelling case for ensuring the wealthiest and big corporations pay their fair share at the state level so everyone has a fair shot to survive and thrive.
Rather than divide us, taxes will be an issue that unites community voices across the country in 2025. In addition to our focus on tax justice in states, we will join hundreds of national organizations to demand Congress forgo any additional tax cuts for the wealthy and advocate for new revenue.
An extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) will further reward the wealthiest individuals and big corporations with myriad tax breaks and benefits. We know it will come at the expense of working and middle-class families, costing us an estimated $4.6 trillion over the next 10 years. Extending the TCJA also puts additional strains on states and localities to make up potential funding gaps, as they rely on federal dollars for everything from schools to healthcare, critical infrastructure, and more.
We know the vast majority of Americans want the rich to pay more, not less, in taxes—at both the state and federal level. It’s time for elected officials to give the people what they want after years of disappointing performances.
As storylines develop following the 2024 election, progressives should consider the action in the states around taxes—who pays what they owe, who benefits from them, and whether or not they raise the revenue to fully fund our futures—as the biggest and most unifying fight on the horizon.
If we are successful, 2025 will reveal a more just, equitable, and sustainable tax code that helps build the future our communities deserve.
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G20 Leaders Reach 'Landmark Commitment' for Global Tax on Ultrarich
"Now is the time to turn words into action and launch an inclusive international negotiation, extending beyond G20 countries, on the reform of the taxation of the superrich," said economist Gabriel Zucman.
Nov 19, 2024
Acknowledging that "the era of the billionaire" is still in full swing across the globe, economic justice advocates on Tuesday applauded a "landmark commitment" by G20 leaders at the group's annual summit in Rio de Janeiro, where delegates agreed to cooperate on efforts to ensure the richest households in the world are taxed fairly.
The final communiqué out of the G20 Summit includes a commitment from 19 countries, the European Union, and the African Union, to "engage cooperatively to ensure that ultra-high-net-worth individuals are effectively taxed."
"Cooperation could involve exchanging best practices, encouraging debates around tax principles, and devising anti-avoidance mechanisms, including addressing potentially harmful tax practices," reads the communiqué. "We look forward to continuing to discuss these issues in the G20 and other relevant forums, counting on the technical inputs of relevant international organizations, academia, and experts."
The final text was brokered by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, commonly known as Lula, and the E.U. Tax Observatory noted that Argentina's right-wing president, Javier Milei, "failed to convince other G20 countries to block the communiqué."
The meeting took place less than a year after economist Gabriel Zucman, director of the E.U. Tax Observatory, published a report titled A Blueprint for a Coordinated Minimum Effective Taxation Standard for Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals, which informed G20 finance discussions leading up to the summit.
"A minimum tax on billionaires equal to 2% of their wealth would raise $200-$250 billion per year globally from about 3,000 taxpayers; extending the tax to centimillionaires would add $100-$140 billion," said Zucman, a leading expert on tax avoidance and reducing inequality, in the report.
Billionaires' effective tax rate is currently equivalent to 0.3% of their wealth, requiring them to pay a far lower rate than middle-class taxpayers.
Zucman hailed the agreement out of the summit in Rio de Janeiro as a "historic decision" and said concrete action by the world's governments must follow.
"Now is the time to turn words into action and launch an inclusive international negotiation, extending beyond G20 countries, on the reform of the taxation of the superrich," said Zucman.
Along with Milei, the Biden administration pushed back this year as the G20 weighed Zucman's tax proposal. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told The Wall Street Journal in May that the "notion of some common global arrangement for taxing billionaires with proceeds redistributed in some way—we're not supportive of a process to try to achieve that. That's something we can't sign on to."
As Common Dreams reported Tuesday, the U.S. is one of eight countries that are contributing to an international loss of $492 billion in taxes each year as multinational corporations and ultrawealthy individuals underpay. The eight countries—which also include Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and the U.K.—oppose a United Nations tax convention.
Jenny Ricks, general secretary of the Fight Inequality Alliance, said that particularly with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump set to take office in January, "we live in the era of the billionaire."
"We need to move to the era of the 99%," said Ricks. "This shift won't come easily. The U.S. elections have shown how the superrich can use their wealth and power to influence policies and shape the outcomes of elections. Leaders like Trump in the U.S. and Javier Milei in Argentina are actively working to derail international cooperation, while politicians around the world fail to oppose the vested interests that continue to benefit from such unequal societies."
"We will fight harder than ever before to transform the rhetoric on taxing the rich into a global reality," she added. "We need more equal societies in which the richest no longer hold all the power and wealth, with devastating consequences. We need to redistribute the wealth of the superrich to fund vital public services and the response to climate change. Such a transformation is essential to creating the alternative we seek to today's broken system."
Viviana Santiago, executive director of Oxfam Brazil, applauded Lula's government and the G20 leaders for responding "to people's demands worldwide to tackle extreme inequality, hunger, and climate breakdown, and particularly for rallying action on taxing the superrich."
"G20 governments deserve praise for their groundbreaking commitment to cooperate on taxing the world's superrich. But we won't rest until this delivers real change for people and planet," said Santiago, adding that governments now ostensibly supporting a tax on billionaires' wealth should also "be championing a $5 trillion climate finance goal at COP29," the U.N. summit set to wrap up in Baku, Azerbaijan this week.
"How can they argue that climate justice is unaffordable with a deal to raise trillions of dollars by taxing the superrich on the table?" she asked.
Quentin Parrinello, policy director at the E.U. Tax Observatory, asserted that negotiations on the tax proposal "must now extend to a much more inclusive space than the G20."
"Such reforms don't happen overnight, but time is pressing," said Parrinello. "This agenda is even more important today, with the risk of geopolitical fragmentation and looming wealth concentration fueling inequality and undermining democracy."
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