The Biden administration is seeking to retain parts of former President Donald Trump’s tax cuts for those earning less than $400,000, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told reporters.
Ms. Yellen confirmed to reporters before her appearance at the Economic Club of Chicago that President Joe Biden would extend parts of his predecessor’s 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) legislation, which is set to expire in 2025.
“The president is clearly focused on tax fairness,” she said. “He’s going to be focused on making sure that tax cuts disappear for those corporations, and we’re not negotiating new tax breaks for wealthy individuals.”
In prepared remarks on Jan. 25, Ms. Yellen claimed that those tax cuts bolstered the budget deficit by $2 trillion without spurring investment.
“It prioritized tax cuts for corporations, disproportionately benefited top earners, and did not fix the broken international tax system that encourages companies to shift jobs and profits overseas,” the former head of the Federal Reserve said.
Over the past year, there has been mixed messaging from the White House on the tax policy issue.
At the same time, U.S. officials have argued that President Trump’s tax cuts were primarily responsible for the ballooning budget gap and soaring national debt.
“All of the things in TCJA set to expire without finding new revenue sources to cover everything that’s left in would be a serious concern given the projections for the deficit,” she said.
Economists have debated over factors contributing to the national debt.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) says a combination of rocketing federal spending and tax cuts led to the national debt topping $34 trillion.
“Absent any of these phenomena, debt would be on a far more sustainable path.”
The Debt Is ‘Manageable’
When asked if the level of debt and annual deficits are sustainable, Ms. Yellen responded that the nation’s fiscal state is “manageable.”Rather than assessing the debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio, she preferred to look at interest costs associated with the climbing debt volumes.
“We went through a period in which interest rates were exceptionally low. In spite of the fact that the ratio of debt to GDP went up, the cost of servicing that debt was exceptionally low,” Ms. Yellen said in a brief Q&A session.
“Sometimes, if you say a number of absolute levels of public debt, that is a scary number. But we also have a huge economy, and I think focusing on interest costs associated with that debt, in real terms, is a better way to look at it. And, so far, that’s been quite manageable.”
She had previously expressed concern about the debt-to-GDP ratio in 2017.
“I am very worried about the sustainability of the U.S. debt trajectory,” she said. “Our current debt-to-GDP ratio of about 75 percent is not frightening, but it’s also not low.”
Ms. Yellen conceded that policymakers need to employ measures to trim federal deficits to manageable levels.
‘Bidenomics’
Ms. Yellen’s appearance comes soon after a solid, better-than-expected fourth-quarter GDP reading of 3.3 percent. Last year, the U.S. economy grew by 2.5 percent.The Treasury secretary also took the opportunity to tout “Bidenomics.”
“We started with an economic recovery that is remarkable for both its speed and its fairness,” Ms. Yellen said in her prepared remarks. “The recovery is so strong and so widely shared because Bidenomics is not just about a post-pandemic rebound in demand. We have also focused on unsnarling supply chains and bringing more Americans into the labor force, which increases supply.”
She noted that President Biden’s “economic agenda is far from finished.”