GOP Congressman blasts tax hikes to pay for infrastructure plan

As Democratic lawmakers and the Biden administration explore ideas for an infrastructure plan — Rep. Rodney Davis (R., Ill.) is urging them not to raise taxes to pay for it. The White House is looking at a range of options to fund a long-term recovery package, including raising the corporate tax rate and hiking taxes on the highest-earning Americans.

"After we come out of our pandemic — where we need our economic growth to be nuclearized — they're going to open up the tax code to pay for, not just a partial amount of the $3 trillion for infrastructure, they're going to use the income tax code to pay for their climate priorities," said Davis in an interview with Yahoo Finance Live. "They're going to raise corporate income tax rates. Small businesses that have been hurting throughout this pandemic are going to see their taxes go up."

The Biden administration has not yet finalized its long-term economic plan. On Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said President Biden is considering a range of options and called speculation about the proposal premature.

During a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen defended potential tax increases to go toward infrastructure, education, job training and climate change risks.

"A package that consists of investments in people, investments in infrastructure will help to create good jobs in the American economy and changes to the tax structure will help to pay for those programs," said Yellen.

"We do need to raise revenues in a fair way to support the spending that this economy needs to be competitive and productive," she added.

Davis is the top Republican on the House Highways and Transit subcommittee and met with President Biden in the Oval Office earlier this month to talk about infrastructure.

"We begged them, 'please do not use reconciliation for infrastructure'," said Davis.

Biden has said he'd prefer the infrastructure bill to be bipartisan, but some Democratic lawmakers say they're willing to use the reconciliation process again to pass the legislation without any Republican support.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has already said his party would be unlikely to support tax increases.

When asked how he suggested paying for an infrastructure bill, Davis did not give specific ideas to raise revenue — but suggested cutting "non-infrastructure priorities" from the plan.

"They're going to try to disguise a climate priority bill, that's going to raise costs on every American, instead of actually working with us to rebuild our crumbling roads and bridges," he said.

Biden and Democratic lawmakers have made clear they want to prioritize clean energy and measures to reduce climate change as they work to rebuild the nation's infrastructure.

"Infrastructure priorities like rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, we can always find bipartisan support for that. The problem is how the Democrats are proposing to pay for this," said Davis.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is set to testify before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure later this week.

Jessica Smith is chief political correspondent for Yahoo Finance, based in Washington, D.C. Follow her on Twitter at @JessicaASmith8.

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