Billionaire tax proposal in chaos: House Democrat says plan has been scrapped moments before Senate Finance Chair pushes back and insists ‘we’re continuing to work with members’
- The billionaire’s tax proposal was introduced by Senator Ron Wyden today
- Rep. Richard Neal announced it was out of Biden’s plans as of this afternoon
- Wyden soon disputed Neal’s claim, stating that the ‘Senate has a say too’
- It would have levied taxes on unrealized gains in the ultra-wealthy’s financial assets like stocks and bonds, rather than just a capital gains tax
Democrats’ proposal for a new billionaire’s tax to pay for Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda has hit a public stumbling block just hours after the proposal was rolled out Wednesday.
It was introduced by Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore) earlier today.
Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said during a press conference the tax is ‘out of the Biden plan.’
Wyden reportedly bristled at the statement.
‘Last time I looked, the United States Senate has a say too. We’re continuing to work with members,’ Wyden said according to Business Insider.
It’s the latest in a series of inter-party divides being played out on the public stage as Democrats desperately try to hammer out a deal on Biden’s multi-trillion dollar spending initiatives this week.
The proposed tax would have hit the gains of those with more than $1 billion in assets or incomes of more than $100 million a year and will provide funding for the president’s sweeping $2 trillion social reform and climate change spending bill.
Republicans criticized the billionaires’ tax as a ‘harebrained scheme,’ and some have suggested it would face a legal challenge.
Even some Democrats voiced concerns – Neal said earlier that he told Wyden the billionaires’ tax may be more difficult to implement than the route his panel took in simply raising rates on corporations and the wealthy.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia told Huffington Post that he feared the tax could ‘disrupt markets.’
‘The devil’s in the details,’ Warner said.
The plan finally folded six hours after being announced when moderate Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), one of two members of the president’s party in the upper house who have been roadblocks to Biden’s ambitious social reform and climate change plans, voiced concerns.
Manchin said on Wednesday that he ‘didn’t like’ the billionaire’s tax.
‘I don’t like it. I don’t like the connotation that we’re targeting different people, as people that basically, they contributed to society and create a lot of jobs and a lot of money and give a lot to philanthropic pursuits,’ Manchin told CNN.
He added, ‘but it’s time that we all pull together and grow together.’
Earlier reports stated Manchin was in favor of the new tax plan after meeting with Biden and fellow Senate holdout Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz) late on Tuesday.
Biden touted a so-called ‘wealth tax’ while on the campaign trail in 2020
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