White House press secretary Jen Psaki deflected questions about Democratic opposition to President Joe Biden’s plans to hike the corporate tax rate to 28% Monday, saying only that the White House “expected” it.
“The president felt it was responsible to propose a way to pay for his proposal,” Psaki said. “He knows some members think it’s too big and some members think it’s too small.”
“He knows that some will come forward with different ways to pay for this package and some who have views that it shouldn’t be paid for at all, so we fully expect that from Senator Manchin and other members,” she continued. (RELATED: McConnell Says Biden Called Him To Talk About $2 Trillion Infrastructure Plan)
Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin said Monday he can’t support increasing the corporate tax rate beyond 25%. Republicans in Congress reduced the tax rate from 35% to 21% under former President Donald Trump.
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“As the bill exists today, it needs to be changed,” Manchin said.
“It’s more than just me,” he added “There’s six or seven other Democrats who feel very strongly about this. We have to be competitive, and we’re not going to throw caution to the wind.”
Republicans have also criticized the bill as too lightly focused on actual infrastructure. Psaki has said Biden considers things like broadband internet and charging stations for electric cars to be “infrastructure” even though Republicans disagree.
Biden unveiled the plan during a Wednesday event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he acknowledged that the previous 35% corporate tax was too cumbersome, but also said 21% was too low. He also lashed out at Fortune 500 companies that he said were paying zero dollars in taxes, including Amazon.
“Right now a middle class couple … making a combined 110, 120 thousand dollars a year pays 22 cents for each additional dollar they earn in federal income tax,” Biden said. “But a multi-national corporation that builds a factory abroad and then bring it home and sells it — They pay nothing at all.”
“In 2019 an independent analysis found that there are 91 … fortune 500 companies — the biggest companies in the world, including Amazon — that use various loopholes so that they pay not a single solitary penny in federal income tax,” Biden continued. “I don’t want to punish them; that’s just wrong.”