Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is urging a skeptical business community to support corporate-tax increases to help pay for the administration’s proposed $2.25 trillion investment in the nation’s infrastructure, touting greater profits.
In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Tuesday, Yellen argued that the Biden administration’s proposals, “taken as a package will enhance the net profitability of our corporations and improve their global competitiveness,” according to the text of her prepared remarks. “We hope that business leaders will see it this way and support the Jobs Plan.”
The chamber is among the business lobbies that have backed President Joe Biden’s proposal to ramp up spending on infrastructure, but are strongly opposed to raising the corporate income tax rate to pay for it. The plan calls for the rate to increase to 28% from 21%.
The chamber, along with the Business Roundtable, instead want to see a user-fee model for raising money for the plan.
In her speech, Yellen laid out a stark contrast between American innovation and power and its decaying highways, airports and bridges, along with economic inequities driven by rising wages “at the top,” and stagnation among the middle class.
Biden’s proposal, called the American Jobs Plan, will help those who feel “left behind,” by boosting wages and productivity, Yellen says.
