Senate Democrats announced a plan Wednesday to raise recently slashed taxes on corporations and the wealthy to pay for a $1 trillion infrastructure proposal they said would create 10 million jobs.
The tax cuts are becoming unpopular, Democrats said, and should be reversed.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said his party’s proposal would be funded by lifting the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 25 percent and by raising the upper tax bracket back to 39.6 percent, reinstating the AMT and getting rid of the carried-interest tax loophole.
“We want to roll back the Republicans’ tax giveaways to corporations and the wealthy and invest that money instead in jobs and infrastructure,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said.
The tax cuts, passed last year by the GOP-led Congress, were implemented in February. It lowered the top tax rate for individual filers from 39.6 percent to 37 percent. The corporate tax rate was slashed from 35 percent to 21 percent.
Republicans quickly criticized the plan put forward by Democrats, arguing it would hurt the nation’s economic growth.
“If Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats spent more time working with Republicans on infrastructure and less time thinking of new ways to raise taxes on hard-working Americans, we would be making more progress,” said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. “More than 90 percent of American workers have seen more money in their take-home paychecks because of the tax relief law. Now Senate Democrats want to take their hard-earned money away from them.”
The Democrats’ plan comes in response to a proposal by the Trump administration to use $200 billion in federal money to leverage private, state and local funding to provide $1.5 trillion in infrastructure projects over the next decade.
Schumer said the president’s plan would rely too heavily on private infrastructure projects and would result in “Trump tolls,” and other costs. The tax cuts are becoming less popular because, he claimed, people are realizing the cuts are not creating jobs.
Schumer said Trump’s federal investment proposal would come from cutting other infrastructure projects.
“Robbing Peter to pay Paul a pittance would not do nearly enough to rebuild our infrastructure,” Schumer said.
Democrats at a morning press conference lined up to criticize the administration’s plan. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called Trump’s plan “a sham and a fraud,” and said the proposal by Democrats would create millions of “good paying jobs.”
Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del, said the Democrats are proposing “an honest approach” to rebuilding infrastructure.
Democrats said their plan would provide $40 billion for universal high-speed Internet, which is lacking in many rural areas.
“We say every rural home and every inner city home should have high-speed Internet,” Schumer said. “It’s a necessity.”
Republican lawmakers are mulling Trump’s infrastructure plan in committee hearings but it is not clear when, if ever, either chamber will take up an infrastructure bill this Congress.
Democrats want to negotiate with Trump on a bill that includes their proposals.
“We hope the president will move away from his plan and come much further in our direction, so we can get something done for the American people,” Schumer said.
