WASHINGTON – Senator Joe Manchin said on Wednesday that he defends a large infrastructure package that would be paid in part by increasing tax revenues – a point of contention between the two parties.
“I’m sure of one thing: it will be huge,” the West Virginia Democrat, who is seen as a decisive vote in a 50-50 split chamber, told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Although he did not foresee a price tag, Manchin said that Congress should do “everything we can” to pay for it. He said there should be “tax adjustments” in former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax law to increase revenues, including increasing the corporate tax rate from the current 21% to at least 25%.
The tax benefits of Republican law were “weighed in a direction towards the upper extremity,” said Manchin. He also suggested a revenue-based “infrastructure bank”, potentially a value-added tax, that would be used to “rebuild America”.
“I’m not afraid to look at other things,” he said.
Notably, Manchin said that Republican resistance to higher taxes was not a “reasonable” position in an infrastructure deal.
“Where do they think it will come from?” he asked. “How are you going to fix America?”
Manchin’s position on taxes signals a significant divide between the two parties, which could prompt Democrats to pursue the same budgetary reconciliation process they used to get Covid-19 to approve an infrastructure project if they did not reach consensus. with Republicans on how to finance it.
The senator’s comments come as Democrats struggle to decide whether to go it alone again or try a bipartisan agreement to secure the 60 Senate votes needed to pass a bill through the regular process, which would require at least 10 Republicans.
President Joe Biden’s advisers are working out a $ 3 trillion package that includes provisions on infrastructure, renewable energy and increased workforce, along with tax increases to fund it, a source familiar with the plan told NBC News. , while warning that the details are changing. The news was first reported by the New York Times.
Even Senator Susan Collins of Maine, one of the more moderate Republicans, seemed skeptical about raising taxes after Biden said they would raise taxes for people earning more than $ 400,000.
“I didn’t expect it to be well received,” Collins told reporters, adding that it was an understatement.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Told reporters last week that there is no “enthusiasm” among Republicans for a tax increase.
“The Trojan horse will be called infrastructure. Inside the Trojan horse will be all tax increases,” said McConnell. “The only way that I think they could do that would be through a reconciliation process.”
