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Joint Economic Committee Democrats Chairman - Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM)

Issue Briefs

Mar 11 2024

Raising Revenue to Address the U.S. Debt Trajectory

The United States does not have a spending problem; it has a revenue problem. Republican tax cuts for the wealthy have reduced revenues and driven up the national debt. Despite this reality, Republicans want to further cut important social programs, harming millions of Americans while doing little to correct the country’s fiscal balance.

The United States should reduce the deficit, but not on the backs of working people. The deficit can and should be reduced by closing tax loopholes for the wealthiest of the wealthy and going after tax cheats among the wealthiest of individuals and big corporations—a move that requires maintaining funding for the Internal Revenue Service. Next year, there is also a crucial opportunity for Congress to put the country’s fiscal path back on track by letting key provisions of the 2017 Republican tax package expire.

Mar 06 2024

Democrats Are Taking on Corporate Greed and Fighting for American Families

Big companies have used their market dominance to rake in profits by raising prices on families. These price hikes have played a detrimental role in driving inflation and resulted in persistently higher prices for American families. This has been especially clear with the price of food, where industry consolidation in sectors like meat production gave corporations more extreme pricing dominance and major returns in profits. Some companies have also reduced the size of essentials like food and household paper products without lowering prices, shorting families while pushing up profits.

Feb 08 2024

What is a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) and what are some legislative proposals to make one?

A Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is an emerging bipartisan tool that aims to cut global pollution and support American industry A CBAM is a fee applied to products upon entry or imports that accounts for the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted during their production in their country of origin. When in place, these fees can improve domestic industries’ global competitiveness against cheaper, higher-polluting imports and prevent producers from flocking to countries that lack environmental protections. A CBAM can be designed as a permissible import fee under the World Trade Organization. To be clear, it is not a carbon tax. In fact, a CBAM in the United States would make domestic steel and aluminum more cost-competitive and help producers capture an additional $8.5 billion and $6 billion of their respective markets by 2030.

Feb 05 2024

The Child Tax Credit Expansion in the Bipartisan Tax Bill Will Help Kids Across New Mexico

The expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) included in the bipartisan Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act would help lift nearly half a million kids out of poverty nationally next year and will benefit close to 140,000 kids in New Mexico alone in the first year, according to estimates from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The expanded credit will be especially impactful in rural areas, where it will help 51,000 kids living in rural parts of New Mexico, or nearly 1 in 3 of all rural kids living the state.