West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a pivotal centrist Democrat, is warning he’s “concerned” about President Joe Biden’s massive proposals to restructure health care, child care, education and infrastructure — and wants “to see the details.”
In an interview with CNN Thursday, Manchin conceded “there’s a lot of need in our country,” and that “basically we’re coming out of this pandemic with a booming economy.”
“The bottom line is that, let’s look at what we’re doing that can have long-lasting effects,” he said. “The tax reforms. I think we need to have tax reform. I thought (the GOP’s 2017 tax legislation) was the wrong direction to go. But we can’t overreach to the point to where we stymie investments, we stymie basically growth for 2022, 23, 24 and on.”
The Wall Street Journal has reported Manchin in particular is not on board with a corporate tax raise to 28% as Biden has called for.
“I’ve been very clear on 25% corporate, but I want to see basically where our loopholes are and why we’re not collecting and why the IRS has been eviscerated,” he told the news outlet.
In his remarks to CNN, Manchin also emphasized Senate Democrats have to work with Republicans on the legislation, and warned that he would oppose efforts by members of his party if they try to go it alone.
“I’m not for that, I’ve never been for that and I’ve told them I’m not for that,” Manchin said when asked about talk that Democrats are weighing a budget process to pass the infrastructure proposal along party lines.
“The bottom line is this place has got to have a chance to work,” he told CNN.
“So Joe Biden, the President of the United States, is going to give us a chance and he said, ‘OK, try to make it work,’” he added, “Can’t we at least try? Can’t we at least let the committee do its work? Let it go to the floor?”
CNN noted it’s unclear how much of Biden’s push to approve his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan on tops of his $2.5 trillion American Jobs Plan can be approved with bipartisan support.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the White House said the tax increases on capital gains, paired with tougher IRS enforcement would cover the cost of the $1.8 trillion plan over a decade. The administration has also estimated that proposed corporate-tax increases would cover the cost of the $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan over 15 years.
Source: Newmax
