Pelosi optimistic on Biden deal as Manchin pans tax
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told colleagues Wednesday that Democrats are in “pretty good shape” on President Joe Biden’s sweeping domestic plan, but fresh problems emerged as a pivotal Democrat panned a new billionaires’ tax to help pay for the $1.75 trillion package.
Biden and Democrats are racing to wrap up talks before the president departs this week for overseas global summits, in part to show foreign leaders the U.S. is getting things done under his still-new administration.
The president could visit Capitol Hill late in the day and the administration is assessing the situation “hour by hour,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
“We are on track now to move forward once we get an agreement,” Psaki said at the White House.
The upbeat comments from the Democratic leaders on Biden’s big proposal of social services and climate change programs provided fresh hopes for a deal to be announced Wednesday. But negotiations churned with new setbacks — a just-proposed tax on billionaires could be scrapped after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia objected, according to a senior party aide. Manchin panned it as unfairly targeting the wealthy.
“People in the stratosphere, rather than trying to penalize, we ought to be pleased that this country is able to produce the wealth,” Manchin told reporters.
Manchin said he prefers a minimum 15% flat “patriotic tax” to ensure the wealthiest Americans don’t skip out on paying any taxes. “There’s a patriotic duty that you should be paying something to this great country,” he said.
Nevertheless, he said: “We need to move forward — the president has made that very clear — he wants to move forward and we owe it to the president to move forward.”
White House officials met at the Capitol with Manchin and another key holdout Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
“Making progress,” Sinema said as she dashed into an elevator.
The quickening pace of negotiations came as Biden pressed to have a deal in hand ahead of the global summits. There’s also a Sunday deadline to approve a smaller, bipartisan roadsand-bridges infrastructure bill or risk allowing funds for routine transportation programs to expire. But that $1 trillion bill has been held up by progressive lawmakers who are refusing to give their support without the bigger Biden deal.
Pelosi in a letter to colleagues called for a Thursday committee hearing to consider the packages, a typical step necessary before a vote by the full House. Her earlier remarks were conveyed during a private meeting of House Democrats.
Democrats had hoped the unveiling of the billionaires tax could help resolve the revenue side of the equation after Sinema rejected the party’s earlier idea of reversing Trump-era tax breaks on corporations and the wealthy.
The new billionaires’ proposal would tax the gains of those with more than $1 billion in assets or incomes of more than $100 million over three consecutive years.
It would hit the wealthiest of Americans, fewer than 800 people, starting in the 2022 tax year, requiring them pay taxes on the gains of stocks and other tradeable assets, rather than waiting until holdings are sold.
A similar billionaires’ tax would be applied to non-tradeable assets, including real estate, but it would be deferred with the tax not assessed until the asset was sold, though interest would have to be paid.
Overall, the billionaires’ tax rate would align with the capital gains rate, now 23.8%. Democrats have said it could raise $200 billion in revenue that could help fund Biden’s package.