Ryan Bashes Millionaire Tax Proposal

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) today called a proposal by Senate Democrats to impose a new tax on millionaires a “job killer.”

In an interview this morning with the New York Times’ David Leonhardt at the Washington Ideas Forum in downtown D.C., Ryan dished on a number of topics, including a new plan introduced by Senate Democratic leaders to levy a 5.6%  tax on millionaires in order to cover the cost of President Obama’s $447 billion jobs bill.

“The arithmetic just doesn’t add up,” he said, adding that the tax would burden roughly half of the nation’s small business owners.

Ryan called for eliminating most tax loopholes for corporations, and in turn, lowering the overall rates they pay. He speculated that addressing business tax reform would be more politically feasible than adjusting the tax code for individual payers. Ryan complained that several European countries have lower corporate tax rates, which he said, makes the U.S. “really uncompetitive.”

The conversation later shifted to healthcare, which allowed Ryan to promote his plan to reform the way Americans receive and pay for health insurance. Under Ryan’s proposal, employees would have the option of enrolling in private health plans. Doing so would make them eligible to receive federal tax credits to pay for their coverage. Ryan argued that the plan would allow individuals to keep their insurance in the event they lose their job, and would generate more federal tax revenue. Ryan was careful to distinguish his plan from President Obama’s, which includes a mandate that all Americans must either purchase insurance or pay a fine.

Ryan said he thinks that the Supreme Court will “knock down the [individual] mandate” when it issues its ruling on the law sometime next year.