US President, Joe Biden has intimated that it’s time for corporations;and the richest Americans to “start paying their fair share” of taxes.
Biden made this assertion on the “President’s Getting America Back on Track Tour”,;where he is touring parts of the country in a concerted;effort to promote his administration’s massive Infrastructure and American Families spending plans totalling about $4tn.
Speaking at a community college in Norfolk, Virginia, the President made the case for increasing taxes;on the wealthiest in the US in order to help fund the spending plans.
“I think it’s about time we started giving tax breaks and tax benefits to working-class families;and middle-class families, instead of just the very wealthy”
He added that he’s not “anti-corporate”, but “it’s about time they (wealthy corporations) started paying their fair share”.
Biden also explained that the American families plan, which would dedicate $1tn in spending on education;and childcare over 10 years, and $800bn in tax credits aimed;at middle- and low-income families would not increase taxes for the vast majority of people in the US.
“It is paid for by making sure corporate America and the wealthiest 1% … just pay their fair share. Do we want to give the wealthiest people in America another tax cut, or do you want to give every high school graduate the ability to earn a community college degree?”
He revealed that the plan would benefit 65 million children, and “cut child poverty in half this year”.
‘Trickle-down economics has never worked’
President Biden also posited that he is against an argument made by conservatives that;tax breaks for the rich spur business investment that ultimately benefits the masses below in the longer term.
“For too long we’ve had an economy that gives every break in the world to the folks who need it the least. It’s time to grow the economy from the bottom up.
“If you asked the top 1% to pay the same tax rate they paid in 2001 when George Bush was president, that would generate around $13bn a year.”
“Trickle-down economics has never worked”.
The President used the platform to urge Republicans in Congress to ensure bipartisan support for his legislation on the spending plans.
He cited “overwhelming support” for the plans among many Republican voters and said he need that to translate in the corridors of Washington.
“Now I just have to get some of my Republican colleagues to support it”.
Meanwhile, in a press conference in his home state of Kentucky, Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, revealed that he expected no Republican to back Biden’s Infrastructure and Families packages. He also indicated that Republican lawmakers are open to a roughly $600bn bill.
“I think it’s worth talking about but I don’t think there will be any Republican support – none, zero – for the $4.1tn grab bag which has infrastructure in it…”.
President Biden was accompanied on the tour by the first lady, Jill Biden. He is set to visit other destinations in Virginia before heading to Louisiana next week.
Georgia, Ohio and North Carolina are among the other destinations for either Biden personally or members of his entourage, as they bid to sell to the public on his rebuilding packages.
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