Democrats float tax relief plans to home in on affordability

Jacob Fulton, CQ-Roll Call on Mar 10, 2026

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WASHINGTON — Democrats with potential presidential aspirations have unveiled a slew of tax breaks in recent days that emphasize the party’s focus on affordability in hopes of taking back the White House.

The latest pitch, unveiled Monday from New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, would more than double the standard deduction for married couples filing jointly to $75,000, with proportional breaks for heads of households and single filers. But other proposals look to take advantage of more topical matters: Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, for example, is proposing a pause on the federal gas tax through Oct. 1 amid rising oil prices due to the war in Iran.

It’s part of a broader Democratic effort to make affordability the top issue of both the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election. Affordability concerns were key to President Donald Trump’s 2024 win — and Democrats are now looking to turn the tables amid soaring global tariffs and skyrocketing gas prices due to the war in Iran.

“The tax system, we all know this, is rigged,” Booker said in a video Monday. “It’s rigged against working people and all full of things to help people with a lot of money, whether it’s corporations or billionaires, avoid paying taxes.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., are targeting the very wealthy with their proposal to implement a federal 5% annual wealth tax on American billionaires. And Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., another potential 2028 hopeful, is also poised to unveil a proposal this week to eliminate income tax on up to $46,000 for taxpayers filing individually, or $92,000 for married couples filing jointly, according to The Washington Post.

The tax proposals are already facing some pushback, including from Democrats.

Alex Jacquez, a Biden administration and Sanders staff alum who is chief of policy and advocacy at the liberal-leaning Groundwork Collective advocacy group, panned Van Hollen’s proposal on social media as “deeply misguided,” adding that “the race to exempt people from paying taxes is only going to erode our fiscal situation and our democracy.”

And Erica York, vice president of federal tax policy for the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, raised the alarm on social media that Booker’s proposal would be “so expensive. North of $8 trillion over the 10-year budget window expensive.”

The tax plans are unlikely to advance in either chamber given the GOP’s majority through the rest of 2026, and even if Democrats retake either chamber and advance one of the proposals, Trump would still need to sign the legislation into law.

Republicans are virtually certain to oppose Democrat-backed tax cuts in an election year that would threaten to compete with their own tax breaks provided in last year’s budget reconciliation law. However, the proposals could serve as benchmarks for other 2028 hopefuls as Democrats look for a legislative agenda should they retake the White House.

The price tags of the recently unveiled proposals have yet to become clear. But each proposal would likely be expensive and has the potential to significantly impact the federal budget.

Lawmakers in both parties are expected in the coming years to continue unveiling tax proposals as voters sharpen their focus on affordability, but the push for additional tax cuts is prompting some concern from fiscal hawks.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan, independent policy group, said Monday that lawmakers proposing tax cuts should continue to keep fiscal responsibility in mind — and tackling the deficit is “a key to sustainable affordability” in the long term.

“It feels like it’s always a game of fiscal one-upmanship at this point,” MacGuineas said. “But the price tags are getting larger, the policies are getting bolder, and all of it, of course, is coming under the veil or the title of affordability.”