La Jornada – Biden asks Congress to approve tax increases for the wealthy

US President Joe Biden has said it is “time” for the country’s large and wealthy corporations – who represent 1% of the population – to pay their “fair share” of taxes.

This came in a speech before both houses of Congress, in which he indicated that wealth and large companies should help pay their taxes for the public investments that his government intends to make.

The president cited a recent study, which indicates that 55 percent of large companies paid “zero” federal taxes last year, despite making $40 billion in profits. In addition, he said, many evaded taxes or took advantage of benefits and discounts to hire their workers in other countries. “This is not true,” he said.

The president requires those earning more than $400,000 a year to pay a 39.6 percent tax, the same rate that was imposed during the presidency of Republican George W. Bush (2001-2009). He also emphasized that his government would close loopholes that allow the wealthy to pay far less taxes than they owe.

This is not the first time that the president has sought to persuade lawmakers of the importance of raising taxes on individuals and companies that earn the most to fund social spending. In late April, Biden presented his proposal to raise the contribution rule to Congress.

At that time, the president presented two proposals to revive the world’s largest economy, after the Covid-19 epidemic caused a severe recession in 2020. The first consists of more than $2 trillion in infrastructure plan to renovate roads and bridges, as well as financing clean energy projects and government aspects other.

The second is the so-called $1.8 trillion American Family Plan, which seeks to allocate funds for early childhood education, childcare, and colleges and universities.

According to Biden’s project, the infrastructure plan will be funded by increasing the corporate tax rate from 21 to 28 percent, while the end of corporate tax breaks, legal loopholes and tax cuts approved under former President Donald Trump will pay off. for the family plan.

So far, neither plan has had the support of Republicans, who are a minority in Congress, albeit a significant one.