President Biden’s plan to raise corporate taxes could make it through the Senate if Democrats employ a budgetary tactic that will circumvent a GOP filibuster, Republicans warned.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell predicted Democrats will usher through a major tax increase provision by tacking it on to infrastructure legislation, which they plan to pass with only 51 votes via a process known as budget reconciliation.
“I think the Trojan horse will be called ‘infrastructure,’ but inside the Trojan horse will be all the tax increases we have been talking about,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said. “They want to raise taxes across the board.”
Biden is considering a slew of tax hikes to fund the as-yet-unwritten but massive infrastructure proposal.
Biden told ABC News on Wednesday that anyone making more than $400,000 “will see a small to significant tax increase.”
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Biden is also interested in lifting the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, raising the capital gains tax, and expanding the federal estate tax threshold.
Republican opposition to tax increases is all but certain.
But Democrats can employ budget reconciliation to pass certain legislation with only 51 votes.
Democrats used the tactic to pass the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 spending package Biden signed into law this month. Under Senate rules, Democrats can employ reconciliation to pass one more bill this year under a fiscal 2022 budget resolution.
McConnell warned Democrats will use their final reconciliation package not only for infrastructure but also for tax cuts and other key wish list items.
“They have one more of those available to them,” McConnell said of the reconciliation process. “And my suspicion is they will try to jam everything they can into that bill and call it an ‘infrastructure bill,’ just like they tried to call the bill a couple of weeks ago a COVID bill, which had 1% for vaccines, and 9% for healthcare, and a whole lot of other things.”
Democrats won’t confirm a plan to raise taxes.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent and a socialist, said he intends to advance the infrastructure measure using the reconciliation process.
Neither the Biden administration nor Democrats have offered specifics, but the measure could cost trillions of dollars.
Biden does not support a gas tax, but other tax increases could help pay for it.
Sanders declined to point to tax increases as a way to offset the cost.
“It’s a little early for that,” Sanders said.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday said Democrats will try to work with the GOP on a bipartisan infrastructure bill that can win 60 votes but suggested he’d use reconciliation if they can’t strike a deal.
“We must get bold change, and if our Republican friends block it, we’re going to put our heads together and figure out the best way to go,” Schumer said. “Everything is on the table.”
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Schumer said nothing about a tax increase. He later told MSNBC Democrats were looking at ways to make the reconciliation process “as flexible and as broad as possible so we can do many different kinds of things.”
