Manchin: Deal unlikely today on Biden $2T bill, backs tax on corporate profits
Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin says Democrats are unlikely to reach a deal Wednesday on President Biden’s nearly $2 trillion social spending bill — but that both he and fellow party holdout Sen. Kyrsten Sinema support a 15 percent minimum tax on corporate profits to help pay for it.
Biden had hoped for an agreement before he flies to Europe Thursday for a trip that will culminate in a climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. He originally sought $3.5 trillion for social and environmental programs, but a bill is expected to be half that size if Democrats reach an agreement.
Biden hosted Manchin (D-W.Va.) and fellow moderate Sinema (D-Ariz.), at the White House Tuesday night but the sitdown didn’t resolve disagreement on new taxes or specific programs.
“We’re not going to do everything today,” Manchin told reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
After a meeting with Sinema and White House officials at the Capitol Wednesday, Manchin said “it would be nice” if the deal were to come together swiftly, but added: “It’s really up to the rest of the caucus… There’s 50 of us and everyone has to participate.”
Biden met at the White House with Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-VT.), a self-declared socialist and a proponent of larger social programs, on Wednesday afternoon in an apparent intra-party peacemaking effort.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki insisted Wednesday that a deal was still possible before Biden boards Air Force One on Thursday for a flight to Rome, where he will participate in a G20 summit and meet with Pope Francis.
“Yes. We’ll see,” Psaki said when asked if a deal could happen before Biden leaves.
Biden is considering visiting the Capitol before he departs for his trip, Psaki said. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters that he believes that Biden will make the stop.
“The president remains open to going up to the hill,” Psaki said. “We haven’t made a decision to do that and we are making decisions hour by hour on what would be most constructive to move things forward.”
But Psaki said Biden “doesn’t have the space” to delay his trip by much.
Sticking points include wrangling over specific programs and how to pay for them. Biden vowed to offset the spending with new revenue to avoid worsening inflation and adding to the national debt.
Manchin told reporters Wednesday morning that a new proposed “billionaire’s tax” on unrealized capital gains was “convoluted” and “I don’t like it” — but by late afternoon Wednesday clarified he’s open to a similar idea of charging billionaires a 15 percent minimum tax.
“Everybody should pay their fair share, call it whatever you want to,” Manchin said.
“I’m open basically to making everyone paying. If we’re gonna make corporations pay this 15 [percent], don’t you think every human being — no matter what all their deductions may be because of all the wonderful people that have around them and can afford for the tax coach — shouldn’t they pay at least 15 percent too?”
Sinema torpedoed Biden’s original plan to raise the corporate tax rate and hike taxes on incomes over $400,000.
The original proposal for a “billionaire’s tax” would have hit the gains of those with more than $1 billion in assets or incomes of more than $100 million a year.
Sinema has embraced a proposal for a 15 percent minimum tax on corporate profits, and Manchin said he supports that policy.
“There should be a 15 percent patriotic tax,” he said Wednesday. “We’ve all agreed on a 15 percent corporate tax.”
Democrats also say that an IRS crackdown on tax avoidance would raise funds but Manchin and others blasted the idea as an invasion of privacy — with legislators first proposing banks provide data to the Internal Revenue Service on accounts with annual inflows and outflows of $600 and then upping the threshold to $10,000 after pushback.
Manchin said he told Biden the notion was “screwed up” when they met at the president’s home in Wilmington, Del., on Sunday and that Biden agreed it should not be included in the final bill.
“I said, ‘Do you understand how messed up that is to think that Uncle Sam’s going to be watching,’” the West Virginia senator said Tuesday of what he told Biden. “I told him… this cannot happen, this is screwed up.”
Staffers at the meeting looked back and forth at each other back, Manchin said, before Biden said, “I think Joe’s right on that.”
Manchin on Wednesday said that there also wasn’t yet agreement on Medicare expansion or federal subsidies for paid parental and family leave.
“I am truly absolutely concerned about the deficit of our country at almost $29 trillion,” Manchin said. “In good conscience, I have a hard time increasing basically benefits… when you can’t even take care of what you have.”
Manchin is reportedly working to shrink the size of new environmental programs in the package — believed to be about $500 billion — and publicly dissed other plans, such as federally financed preschool for 3- and 4-year-old, which he has said his state established without federal help.
The original plan called for free community college, which is unlikely to make the cut, and would cap childcare expenses at 7 percent of income for most people. It also would generously fund home health care for the elderly and disabled and extend a temporarily increased child tax credit from $2,000 annually to $3,000, or $3,600 per child under six.
Democrats can pass the legislation using special budget reconciliation rules that allow for a bare majority in the evenly divided Senate, but the qualms of Manchin and Sinema are preventing consensus.
Democrats also reportedly fear that potential losses next week in governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia could sink momentum on the bill and a separate Senate-passed $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.
