President Joe Biden has said that any corporate tax rate between 25 and 28 percent could help pay for much-needed infrastructure programs. That suggests he could accept a lower tax rate than the one he proposed in his bid for Republican support.
In response, Biden said during a visit to Lake Charles, Louisiana, according to Reuters, “The way I can pay for this [plan] is to make sure that big corporations don’t pay zero taxes and to reduce the corporate tax (for 2017) to between 25 and 28 percent. “
In his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, the Democratic president initially proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent. Tax experts and congressional aides told Reuters in April that a 25 percent tax rate would be a likely compromise outcome.
Biden said, “My proposal is urgently needed” and will be appropriated. He also dismissed the “trickle down” theory, in which big business and the wealthy drive and benefit those down the economic ladder. “We have to build from the bottom up, from the middle.”
President Joe Biden talks about infrastructure and jobs on the banks of the Calcasieu River near Interstate 10, May 6, 2021, in Louisiana. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Behind Biden as he speaks is the Calcasieu River Bridge, which was built in 1952. The bridge is 20 years past its expiration date, he said. Crowded traffic passed slowly over the bridge.
Biden said of the crowded bridge, “It was a contributing factor to the disaster.”
He later stopped in New Orleans (New Orleans) to tour the Sewerage and Water Board’s Carrollton Water Plant and discuss the need to invest in water infrastructure.
The U.S. corporate tax rate dropped from 35 percent to 21 percent following the 2017 tax cuts pushed by then-President Donald Trump (R-TX) and his fellow Republicans, but many large U.S. companies are actually paying much lower rates.
Increasing taxes on U.S. corporations in Biden’s more than $4 trillion federal budget is a key part of his plan to restructure the U.S. economy in a bid to reduce inequality and try to counter the rise of the Chinese Communist Party.
Biden’s visit to storm-ravaged Louisiana is part of his “Getting America Back on Track Tour. Biden’s trip was aimed at promoting a $2.25 trillion infrastructure spending plan and a $1.8 billion education and child care program. Louisiana has been a stronghold of support for Republican presidential candidates for the past 20 years.
His push to spend more federal money on schools, roads, job training and other public works, and to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and corporations to pay for them, has been welcomed by voters of both parties. But the plan faces strong opposition from Republican lawmakers.
The White House argues that such a trip would win public support for Biden and his spending proposals, even among Republican voters who support Trump. Trump still wields enormous influence over the Republican Party.
Congressional Republicans oppose Biden’s proposal to spend $2.25 trillion on infrastructure over the next 10 years, saying that higher taxes on businesses to fund them would reduce jobs and slow economic growth.
Trump has said that tax increases on businesses could prompt some to move overseas in search of a better tax environment.
The U.S. economy has thrived with higher levels of corporate tax rates, such as in the 1960s and 1990s.
In a deeply divided Senate, Biden would need all the votes in Democrats’ hands to approve the bill if no Republicans support it. Biden said in Lake Charles that he is meeting with Republicans in Congress to find out “how much they are willing to give, what they think are priorities and what compromises they can make.
“I’m prepared to compromise,” Biden said. “I’m not prepared to go through another period of just ‘Infrastructure Month’ and nothing changes.”
Some Republicans have proposed a much smaller infrastructure package: $568 billion, mostly for improvements to roads, bridges, broadband access and drinking water supplies. However, a large portion of that includes federal funds that already will be spent on infrastructure.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell predicted last week that Biden’s infrastructure and jobs plan, would not be supported by any Republican senators.
Speaking at an event in his home state of Kentucky last month, McConnell said, “I’m going to fight them one step at a time because I think this is the wrong medicine for America.”
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