Making a Federal Tax Policy List–Checking it Twice: Which Members of Congress Have Been Naughty or Nice?

Despite some setbacks, 2023 was a good year for fairness in federal tax policy.

Despite some setbacks, 2023 was a good year for fairness in federal tax policy. Democrats fended off most of the Republican attacks on their key tax legislative accomplishment—the Inflation Reduction Act—and pushed the envelope on many ambitious tax fairness proposals that have become centerpieces of their legislative agenda. As the year comes to a close, not one but two proposals to better tax billionaires were introduced in Congress. 

Americans for Tax Fairness has kept a close eye on the members of Congress that have made some of the biggest impacts in tax policy in 2023, both for good and ill. The midst of the holiday season seems like a good time to look back on the past year and share our list of top tax-fairness friends and foes.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) NICE

Senator Whitehouse was handed the gavel for the Senate Budget Committee at the beginning of this year and has wielded it effectively to promote tax fairness. He held no fewer than five hearings focused on how the tax code is rigged for the ultra-wealthy and mega-corporations. Each of these hearings not only illuminated problems, but offered bold solutions as well. Chairman Whitehouse is the lead sponsor on some of the most progressive pieces of tax legislation in Congress: No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act, which would crackdown on corporations that try to shift their profits offshore; Paying a Fair Share Act, which would establish a 30% minimum income tax rate on multi-million dollar incomes; and Medicare & Social Security Fair Share Act, would create a new tax on the capital-gains income of the ultra-wealthy to keep Social Security and Medicare well funded.

Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) NAUGHTY

Congressman Smith became chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee this year and went right to work trying to push through big tax cuts for corporations and the super wealthy. In June, Smith shepherded through his panel a package of tax changes that mostly benefited big firms and the rich, and that if made permanent would cost over $1 trillion in lost tax revenue. Smith has relentlessly attacked the funding for the Internal Revenue Service that Democrats restored last year and has even gone so far as to undermine the Biden-led international deal that would curb offshore tax dodging by multinational corporations. 

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) NICE

As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee for the past several years, Senator Wyden has been leading the charge for tax fairness. Just last month, he introduced the Billionaires Income Tax (BIT) Act, which would finally end the scandal of billionaires paying next to nothing in income taxes. The BIT was cosponsored by 15 senators, including the full committee chairmen of seven other committees. Chairman Wyden has held hearings shedding light on tax evasion among the ultra wealthy and big pharma’s intricate tax schemes. 

Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) NAUGHTY

Since taking over the House Budget Committee this year, Representative Arrington has only cared about slashing taxes on the wealthy paid for by slashing critical federal services for working families. The first budget that Arrington muscled through his committee was a $3.6 trillion cut to essential domestic spending. If enacted into law, 2 million fewer Americans would have received rental assistance, 200,000 children would have been kicked off Head Start, and 1.7 million women and infants would have lost nutritional aid. But even as families would have suffered from the cuts, Arrington would have failed to lower federal debt because he would have given away all the savings in a permanent extension of 2017’s GOP-Trump tax law, which would mostly benefit the rich. After being thwarted in direct attacks on public services, Arrington began urging the creation of a “debt commission”—code for cutting Social Security and Medicare, since he and other Republicans reject raising any more tax revenue from the wealthy and corporations. 

Reps. Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Don Beyer (D-VA) NICE

Following President Biden’s call for a 25% minimum income tax for the ultra-rich—households worth over $100 million—Representatives Cohen and Beyer went to work building a legislative coalition for this ambitious tax fairness goal. They brought together over 60 House Democrats in support of the Billionaire Minimum Income Tax (BMIT) Act, which will ensure that billionaire and centimillionaire households can no longer get away with paying lower tax rates than working families. In addition to his leadership on the BMIT, Rep. Cohen supported other progressive tax bills—including the Assuring Medicare’s Promise Act, No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act, and Social Security Expansion Act—all of which are critical components in building a more equitable tax code, while Rep. Beyer has been the chief proponent in the House for the Millionaires Surtax, which passed the House during the previous Congress as part of the Build Back Better Act.

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) NAUGHTY

Minority Whip Thune is the lead sponsor of legislation that would eliminate the estate tax, the only federal curb on the creation and perpetuation of dynastic wealth. He has convinced 41 of his fellow Senate Republicans to back the measure, a decades-long effort by Republicans to weaken this tax on lucky heirs. It’s a campaign that has succeeded in widening the nation’s destabilizing wealth gap while costing hundreds of billions of dollars in tax revenue that could have been used to lower costs and improve services for everyone not born rich. The number of family fortunes subject to the tax has already hit historic lows: fewer than 0.1% of estates—only those worth at least $12.9 million in 2023, with the amount rising each year with inflation—now paying the levy. If Sen. Thune and his Republican cronies have their way in repealing the estate tax, it would be a $1.8 trillion tax giveaway to billionaires.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) NICE

Representative Schakowsky has been one of the strongest tax fairness advocates in the Congress, not just this congressional secession but for decades. Schakowsky has co-sponsored practically every bill that Americans for Tax Fairness has endorsed, signing onto legislation that would stop corporate outsourcing, tax billionaires, expand the estate tax, and implement a financial transaction tax, to name just a few. Schakowsky is the lead sponsor for the Social Security Expansion Act, which would lift the cap on payroll taxes so the highest-paid employees pay into Social Security on all of their wages, just like other workers do, while taxing high-income capital gains at the same rate as wage income to shore up the Social Security Trust Fund. 

Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) NAUGHTY

Representative Buchanan, a leading member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, has been one of the loudest proponents of extending the tilted-to-the-rich Trump tax law. Buchanan is the lead sponsor of the TCJA Permanency Act, which would indefinitely extend provisions of the law scheduled to expire in a few years, mostly aid the wealthy and add $3.8 trillion to the national debt.