Rep. Comer: Tax Hikes Are for Redistributing Wealth, Not Programs

Calls from the Biden administration and from Democrats to raise taxes do not come from a plan to generate money for more government spending, but for redistributing wealth, Rep. James Comer said Tuesday.

"You used to hear liberals say we want to raise taxes to be able to have more money to spend on more government programs," the Kentucky Republican, who appeared on MSNBC's "Squawk Box" along with Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif, to discuss President Joe Biden's call to hike taxes commented. "Now we have seen in Washington, for the past few years, you can spend and you don't even have to come close to balancing the budget."

Biden is planning the first major tax hike in the United States since 1993, with increases in the corporate tax rate and in the individual tax rate for people earning more than $400,000 per year. The changes are expected to include a repeal of some of former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cut legislation. It is expected to include an increase in the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, expanding the estate tax, and raising the capital gains tax for people who earn more than $1 million a year.

Comer commented that the plans are "bad policy."

"The Democrats in Washington have just really drifted so far to the left that they're not even recognizable," he said.

Democrats are also calling for repealing the cap on federal tax deductions for state and local taxes, SALT, which went into effect under Trump's tax law, and Comer said that is a bad idea.