( CNN ) President Obama 's new budget includes a mixed bag of tax reforms , including progressive proposals to create a fairer income tax , as well as misguided corporate giveaways . On the individual side , he would increase taxes on the very wealthiest Americans to pay for tax cuts for lower- and middle-income Americans , including limiting tax benefits of itemized deductions for the best-off Americans , scaling back gigantic tax breaks for capital gains and large estates , and ensuring that hedge-fund managers pay their fair share . Each of these steps would reduce glaring inequities in our tax laws that allow the Warren Buffets of the world to pay lower tax rates than their secretaries . On the tax-cutting side , Obama would expand tax credits for child-care and education expenses , boost the earned-income tax credit for childless workers , and give a new tax break to two-earner couples . Critically , these tax cuts would be paid for by the loophole-closers already mentioned . Unfortunately , these sensible proposals are almost certainly dead on arrival in the GOP-led Congress . But on the corporate side , the president 's plans actually have a chance of being taken seriously by congressional Republicans — possibly because his ideas are more in line with the ideological push for lower corporate tax rates . The president 's plan would impose a one-time 14 % tax on the $ 2 trillion in untaxed income that multinational companies collectively have stashed in tax havens . While 14 % is certainly higher than the single-digit rate companies such as Apple and Microsoft have paid to date on their offshore cash , it 's still a lot less than the 35 % these companies should be paying on their profits , and it 's less than what many other businesses are already dutifully paying . Members of Congress have made similar proposals , including Sens . Barbara Boxer and Rand Paul , who recently proposed taxing foreign profits at 6.5 % . Put another way , the president and lawmakers ' theory on taxing offshore profits appears to be `` getting something is better than nothing . '' But we can do better . In the wake of a titanic debate last year over what should happen to the corporate tax rate , Obama 's budget is equally notable for failing to include a comprehensive proposal to eliminate tax giveaways . The President has said that he wants a revenue-neutral corporate tax change that collects the same amount of revenue by lowering the corporate tax rate while eliminating loopholes . But his budget proposal is silent on how to accomplish this goal . The goal of corporate tax reform should be raising more revenue , not the same amount . Measured as a share of the economy , the U.S. corporate tax is lower than almost every other developed nation -- and our corporate tax collections are at nearly their lowest point since World War II . This decline has been driven by rampant tax avoidance by big multinational corporations . Citizens for Tax Justice released a report which found that 111 Fortune 500 corporations have found a way to pay zero corporate income taxes in at least one of the last five years despite being consistently profitable . And more than 70 % of the Fortune 500 companies now have subsidiaries in foreign tax havens . All of which makes it even more absurd that President Obama would reward these tax dodgers with a special low tax rate on their foreign cash hoard . There is some good in the president 's tax reform proposal . In particular , the low-income tax credits will encourage work and pull millions of workers out of poverty . Unfortunately , it is hard to imagine these ideas receiving a real hearing this year . But the President 's plan to lower the corporate tax rate and reward companies that stash their profits offshore with a lower tax rate -- coupled with his budget 's lack of detail on a road map to eliminating corporate loopholes -- signals there is fertile ground for compromise that would fail to achieve a fair and sustainable corporate tax .
Mike McIntyre : Obama 's progressive plans to create a fairer income tax wo n't get through GOP - controlled Congress . But the president 's plans for corporate tax reform do pass , maybe because they go easy on Republicans .