07 April 2021
The Treasury Department released details on Wednesday of President Biden's plan to hike corporate taxes over the next 15 years to raise about $2 trillion for his sweeping jobs and infrastructure proposal.
Why it matters: The plan will likely serve as a roadmap as Democrats in Congress craft legislation to enact Biden's $1.9 trillion American Jobs Plan, which seeks to fulfill a range of campaign promises to fix the country’s crumbling infrastructure, slow the growing climate crisis and reduce economic inequality.
The big picture: The infrastructure plan, which follows a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, is one of two large packages planned by the administration to boost infrastructure — and lays further groundwork for Biden’s first-term legacy to be defined by spending trillions within months of taking office.
Details: The tax plan unveiled Wednesday would ...
- Raise the corporate income tax rate from 21% to 28%
- Enforce a 15% minimum tax on book income of large companies that report high profits, but have little taxable income
- Replace fossil fuel subsidies with incentives for clean energy production
- Boost enforcement against corporate tax avoidance
What they're saying: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told reporters on a briefing call that Biden's plan would end the global “race to the bottom” of corporate taxes that have hurt workers and the U.S. economy, per the New York Times.
- "Our tax revenues are already at their lowest level in generations,” she said. “If they continue to drop lower, we will have less money to invest in roads, bridges, broadband and R&D."
- Earlier this week, Yellen called for a global minimum tax rate to reduce the likelihood of companies relocating offshore, which some Republicans have warned would be a byproduct of raising corporate taxes.
Between the lines: 65% of voters said they strongly or somewhat support Biden raising corporate taxes to pay for his infrastructure plan, including 42% of Republicans, according to a Morning Consult poll released Wednesday.
The other side: The Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable, the voices of America's top corporations, have claimed that raising taxes would hurt U.S. companies operating globally, the AP reports.
- Moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) warned on Monday that he will not support Biden's proposed corporate tax hike, adding that there are "six or seven other Democrats that feel very strongly about this.”
- "There is room for compromise," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said at White House press briefing Wednesday, in reference to the 28% corporate tax rate.
Go deeper: Biden unveils sweeping American Jobs Plan
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.