Joe Manchin Wants to Keep the Corporate Tax Rate as Low as Possible
West Virginia senator Joe Manchin is threatening to block President Joe Biden's higher corporate tax rate as part of Biden’s infrastructure bill — a move that could shield private equity firms whose executives boosted Manchin’s campaign and bet big on Trump’s tax bill.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WV, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in Washington DC, 2021. (Leigh Vogel / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin on Monday began raising objections to President Biden’s legislation to fund infrastructure investments by raising the corporate tax rate to 28 percent. Derailing the tax hike would be a lucrative gift to both corporate CEOs in general, and to private equity giants whose executives bankrolled the lawmaker’s 2018 campaign and funded a super PAC that boosted his closely contested reelection bid.
On Monday, Manchin discussed Biden’s infrastructure plan with West Virginia MetroNews, and declared: “If I don’t vote to get on it, it’s not going anywhere.”
“As the bill exists today, it needs to be changed,” Manchin said. While Biden’s plan calls for raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent, Manchin said he believes the corporate tax rate should be closer to 25 percent for the United States “to be competitive.”
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