Rep. Mike Turner to Newsmax TV: Biden Tax Hike Plan About Dems' Social Agenda

Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, says President Joe Biden’s new tax proposal is more about the Democrats’ social agenda.

“This is not about revenue. This is about their social agenda. You know, when you look at our economy, where we’re just recovering, and we may be coming out of the COVID lockdown,” Turner said Monday during an appearance on Newsmax TV’s “Spicer & Co.”
“This is not the time to raise taxes. You don’t stimulate the economy then take money from the economy. … That’s because this is not about revenue. This is about their philosophy that companies have too much money.”

Biden is planning the first major tax hike since 1993, a boost that could include an increase in the corporate tax rate and the individual rate for individuals earning over $400,000 per year. Per Bloomberg, the Biden administration is looking to use that money to pay for infrastructure, jobs and clean energy.

The changes would likely include the repeal of parts of former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cut legislation and could include a 7-point percentage increase in the corporate tax rate, from 21 to 28 percent, an expansion of the estate tax, and a raise in the capital gains tax for people earning more than $1 million per year.

“Clearly it’s a signal that Democrats will look to high-income people and large corporations for revenue for the investment package to come,” Seth Hanlon, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress, told Politico.

The proposal, reported on Monday morning, comes less than a week after Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that includes $1,400 in stimulus checks to Americans, an extension of unemployment benefits and funds for state and local governments, among other items.

The bill also included $60 billion worth of little-noticed tax hikes added late in the legislative process, per Politico.

“I mean, we just came off of the PPP loans where we’re giving them money to retain employees,” Turner said of the nearly $700 billion in loans distributed through the Paycheck Protection Program.

“We want them to hire people. We want people who are coming off of the COVID lockdown. Instead of businesses being able to have that money to put in the hands of families that are struggling, some even just to put food on the table, they want to send it to Washington. And that’s just bad policy.”

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