Top Republicans in Washington have joined together to form a campaign to fight back against President Biden's proposed $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan. The group, called the 'Coalition to Protect American Workers,' will immediately focus on moderate Democrats and other members of Congress, including Republicans who haven't voiced opposition to the tax proposal. Noting the overwhelming success of President Trump's 2017 tax cuts, the coalition questions why any politician would initiate such an outrageous plan coming out of a pandemic. They believe maintaining the current tax levels will encourage job growth and help increase wages while raising new taxes will kill jobs and lower wages.
Bearing the slogan "Don't Derail the American Comeback," the group, led by Marc Short, former Chief of Staff to VP Mike Pence, plans to spend up to $50 million, with $25 million going towards television and digital ads within the next thirty days. Noting that, before the pandemic, the 2017 tax cuts helped create millions of new jobs and brought unemployment to its lowest level in fifty years, with African American and Hispanic unemployment dropping to the lowest levels in U.S. history, Short stated:
"Democrats now want to pass job-killing tax increases that will stifle our economy as the country is finally emerging from a pandemic."
Besides the unprecedented unemployment numbers in the U.S. before the pandemic, under the 2017 tax reductions, the average middle-income family received a tax cut of $2,000. And the median income of the middle-class reached a record high of $68,703 in 2019, a 6.8 percent increase over 2018.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated she hopes to pass Biden's "American Jobs Plan," (part one of a two-part plan) as soon as July 4. With its goal of redefining capitalism, the package aims to reinstate a 28 percent corporate tax (Trump and Republicans had lowered from 35 percent to 21 percent) as a way to fund the plan. Additionally, individuals making $400,000 a year or more will see their income tax rate increase to 39.6 percent. The president hinted that part-two, the "American Family Plan," would be unveiled in a matter of weeks.
Gina Raimondo speaks during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on April 7.
Photographer: Leigh Vogel/UPI/Bloomberg
In a speech on Wednesday, Biden, who believes he can unite voters to pressure lawmakers to support his radical plan, is expected to promote his plan as essential to ensuring the U.S. remains competitive against the Chinese Communist Party. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declared that "the evidence is unanimous that the American people support" Biden's vision. At a briefing at the White House, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters:
"It's necessarily large, because frankly, we're behind. And we've neglected for too long important investments in our infrastructure. We need to ensure that investments in infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, workforce development and our care economy are made at the scale we need and are made in every single community in America."
While there is bipartisan support for overhauling the nation's infrastructure, Republicans express grave concern over the proposal's astronomical price tag, as well as the true nature of the plan. Mitch McConnell has said he will fight the bill, and Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee, cautioned that the proposed tax increases "could be the biggest economic blunder in our lifetimes." Brady added that Biden's plan will have a dire effect on American workers and weaken the country's ability to compete in the global economy. Brady notes that "over $600 billion of Biden's plan is devoted to Green New Deal programs that will eliminate jobs, destroy our energy industry, and hurt American families," adding:
"Despite a long history of bipartisan agreement on the economic benefits of infrastructure. President Biden has chosen a partisan path that severely weakens America's competitiveness overseas and has China, Europe and our other economic competitors cheering."
The website for the Coalition to Protect American Workers, where you can also take action to make sure your voice is heard, lists additional adverse consequences of Biden's infrastructure agenda:
Raising taxes will destroy good jobs just when millions of Americans are able to get back to work
- Raising business taxes to 28% would destroy 159,000 jobs right when we need them most.
- If the entire tax increase proposed by President Biden were enacted, it would kill 542,000 jobs.
- New taxes on businesses would reduce wages for the lowest income workers in the country.
- Studies show that raising the business tax rate to 28% would reduce wages by almost 1%.
- A 28% rate would reduce U.S. growth by 0.8%. That might now seem like a lot, but in our $21 trillion economy that means over $171 billion in lost economic activity per year.
Tax cuts kept U.S. companies in America instead of offshoring jobs overseas
- Prior to the tax cuts, the U.S. had the highest corporate tax rate in the industrial world at 35%.
- Our old rate was uncompetitive and sent American jobs overseas. The new rate of 21% is squarely in the middle of industrialized countries – 19 countries have higher rates and 16 have lower rates.
- The 21% U.S. corporate tax rate is still higher than many of our competitors including the UK (19%), Germany (15.83%), Canada (15%) and Ireland (12.5%).
- Raising our tax rate to 28% would leave only four other developed countries with a higher tax rates and put the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage.
Biden's proposal hit a major roadblock earlier this week when influential Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) rejected the plan. In a radio interview on Monday, Manchin said there are "six or seven other Democrats that feel very strongly about this," adding:
“The bill, basically, is not going to end up that way. If I don’t vote to get on it, it’s not going anywhere. So we’re going to have some leverage here. And it’s more than just me, Hoppy, there’s six or seven other Democrats that feel very strongly about this.”
