According to reports from USA Today and the Washington Post, President Joe Biden appears ready to make a substantial concession to Republicans in the hope that his proposed infrastructure package will be passed bipartisan.
In a meeting on Wednesday with Senator Shelley Moore Capito, the Republican Senator from West Virginia who serves as the GOP’s top negotiator, Biden reportedly made a counteroffer that would keep the current corporate tax rate at 21%.
Earlier versions of Biden’s infrastructure package proposed an increase in the corporate tax rate to 28%. However, Republicans have signaled opposition to corporate tax increases in hopes of maintaining the tax cuts that President Donald Trump signed in 2017.
Senator Mitch McConnell has called amendments to Trump’s 2017 tax law the “red line”.
The offer to keep corporate tax rates at 21% would be a U-turn for the Biden government, which intended to use tax increases for corporations and wealthy Americans who earn more than $ 400,000 a year to add to the $ 1 infrastructure package To pay $ 9 trillion.
During a press conference at the White House on Wednesday, press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden is still looking for ways to keep the elevated corporate tax rates in place.
“Absolutely not,” said Psaki when asked whether plans to increase corporate taxes had been abandoned.
Psaki added that the Biden administration believes “corporations can afford to pay more taxes,” and that the White House is still in negotiations with Republicans.
Biden should meet again with Capito on Friday for another round of negotiations.