GOP senator hammers Biden proposal to raise corporate tax rate

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) took aim at President Biden’s infrastructure proposal during a Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” over the plan’s funding via an increase of the corporate tax rate.

Speaking with host Chuck Todd, Wicker questioned how the plan could get bipartisan support given that a central part of the proposal involved a partial rollback of the GOP’s 2017 tax reform plan.

I think [Transportation Secretary] Pete [Buttigieg] and I could come up with an infrastructure bill. What the president proposed this week is not an infrastructure bill,” said Wicker, adding that what the bill really amounted to was a “huge tax increase.”

“I’m all for working with the administration on an infrastructure bill,” he continued, before predicting that many Americans would lose their jobs if the corporate tax rate was raised to 28 percent, as proposed by the president.

“How could the president expect to have bipartisanship when his proposal is a repeal of one of our signature issues in 2017?” Wicker asked.

“Let me just tell you: That’s going to cut job creation in the United States,” he added.

Wicker’s appearance came as other Republicans including Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have signalled their opposition to the proposal unveiled by the White House last week, while some Democrats including Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) have held out hope for obtaining GOP support for the legislation.

“I am not going to get on a bill that cuts them out completely before we start trying,” Manchin told Axios last month, referring to Republicans.

Others such as Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) have indicated that the party will likely have to push the plan through the Senate via budget reconciliation, a measure requiring only 50 votes.