Joe Biden wants to fix America's roads and bridges
Credit: Reuters
Joe Biden is considering the first major tax hike on America in nearly 30 years to pay for massive infrastructure and climate programmes.
The sweeping measures would see parts of Donald Trump’s tax cuts in 2017 axed.
Plans under consideration include raising corporation tax from 21 per cent to 28 per cent, and increasing income tax on those earning over $400,000.
It could also include making the estate tax more stringent, and increasing capital gains tax on those making more than $1 million, Bloomberg reported.
Mr Biden’s next spending plan, which would include repairing roads, bridges and airports, is expected to total between $2 trillion and $4 trillion and he may outline it in a joint address to Congress later this month.
It could dwarf the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, a coronavirus relief package, which he signed into law last week.
The president and vice president, Kamala Harris, and their spouses, will travel around the United States this week on a cross-country tour to promote the relief package, which includes $1,400 stimulus cheques for most Americans.
The White House has called it the "Help Is Here" tour, and they will make stops at vaccination sites, schools and small businesses.
Copy of Coronavirus USA Spotlight Chart — Deaths default
Speaking at the White House before the tour, Mr Biden said: "Within 10 days we will reach two giant goals — 100 million shots in people’s arms, 100 million cheques in people’s pockets. Shots in arms and money in pockets, that’s important."
He also announced Gene Sperling, a veteran of the Obama administrations, as a point person to oversee distributing funds from the rescue plan.
The tour will see both Mr Biden and Ms Harris travel to Georgia and Pennsylvania, two states they won narrowly in last year’s election.
Last night Ms Harris was visiting Las Vegas, Nevada. The state is expected to be a key battleground in the 2022 midterm elections for control of the Senate.
There will also be a $250 million advertising campaign to promote the vaccine, including a podcast hosted by a "well-known person" not in the government.
The tour follows Mr Biden’s assertion that he and Barack Obama failed to get across to the public the benefits of the economic rescue plan after the financial crisis in 2008.
Democrats subsequently suffered what Mr Obama called a "shellacking" by Republicans in the 2010 midterm elections.
After the tour Mr Biden will turn to raising money for his infrastructure spending push.
One of many "day one" pledges he had made was to immediately repeal Mr Trump’s tax cuts, although he has not yet done so.
His drive to spend trillions on infrastructure, incorporating climate change measures, will be welcomed by the left wing of his own party.
But more moderate Democrats may oppose increasing taxes, especially while the country is in a pandemic-related economic crisis.
Joe Manchin, the conservative Democrat senator from West Virginia, has called repealing Mr Trump’s tax cuts "ridiculous" and warned of "a depression if we’re not careful."
Mr Manchin has said he will not back infrastructure plans unless there is at least some Republican support.
He has emerged as a key figure for passing measures in the Senate, which is divided 50-50, with Ms Harris as vice president holding a casting vote.
Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, the party’s leader in the Senate, have made clear they will oppose tax hikes.
The US deficit was a record $3.1 trillion in the 2020 fiscal year, and the national debt already stands at more than $28 trillion.
Mr Biden has decided not to pursue a "wealth tax" of the kind suggested by Elizabeth Warren, the Democrat senator.
But Jen Psaki, the White House spokeswoman, said last night the president "shared an objective" with Ms Warren.
She said: "There is a shared view that those at the top are not doing their part. Obviously, corporations could be paying higher taxes.
"His priority and focus has always been on people paying their fair share."
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