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- In remarks about the August jobs report, Biden vowed to take on the corporations trying to squash his tax hikes.
- Corporations like Apple and Disney have been lobbying to kill tax hikes to pay for reconciliation bill measures like universal childcare.
- Biden originally proposed a 28% corporate tax hike and taxes on those making over $400,000.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Even after an August jobs report that missed the mark, President Joe Biden was confident his economic agenda is working. And he said it will continue to work, and improve the economy, if his tax hike on corporations goes into effect to ensure everyone is paying their fair share.
"It's time for working families, the folks who built this country, to have their taxes cut," Biden said in remarks following the jobs report. "And those corporate interests doing everything they can to find allies in Congress to keep that from happening … I'm going to take them on."
When Biden first unveiled his infrastructure plan, he proposed funding it with a corporate tax hike to 28%, up from 21%. He said at the time he was "sick and tired of ordinary people being fleeced." Although he's since expressed willingness to come down from 28%, he has remained adamant that a corporate tax hike, and raising individual income taxes on the wealthy, are vital in lifting the middle class.
The Washington Post reported this week that companies like Apple, Disney, and ExxonMobil are unleashing a massive lobbying effort to squash parts of the Democrats' $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, which includes corporate tax hikes, and is organized mainly by the Chamber of Commerce.
Biden stressed during his remarks that "not a single Republican" supports his plan to hike taxes on corporations, but, as Insider previously reported, neither do some more moderate Democrats. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said they would prefer a smaller hike than what Biden proposed.
Another component of Biden's tax plan is raising taxes on those making over $400,000. The president said during his remarks that given that threshold, the middle class will not be impacted, and it will solely create a fairer tax code for all Americans.
"The super-wealthy are still going to be able to have their three homes," he said.
Biden called on Congress to pass the infrastructure and reconciliation bills and set his economic agenda, including tax hikes, in motion, but given that Manchin said Democrats should put a "pause" on their social welfare bill, the timeline for its passage is uncertain.