Wyden: Funding infrastructure with gas tax hike a 'big mistake'

[mystery-ak]

Wyden: Funding infrastructure with gas tax hike a 'big mistake'
By Naomi Jagoda - 05/11/21 03:39 PM EDT

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on Tuesday said in an interview with The Hill that he thinks it would be a “big mistake” to pay for an infrastructure package through a gas tax increase instead of through raising taxes on corporations.

“It just seems to be a big mistake to go there when corporate [tax] revenue is down something like 40 percent in the last few years,” Wyden said.

Wyden’s comments come as Congress and the White House are debating the size and scope of infrastructure legislation, as well as how to pay for such a measure. As chairman of the committee with jurisdiction over taxes, Wyden will play a key role in crafting the financing portion of an infrastructure package.

President Biden in late March released a $2.25 trillion proposal that would be financed in part by raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent. But Biden’s proposed tax increases have drawn criticism from Republicans, who lowered the corporate rate from 35 percent to 21 percent in their 2017 tax-cut law, as well as from business groups. Republicans also want the amount of spending in an infrastructure bill to be smaller.

Some business groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have expressed interest in raising the federal gas tax. The Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group of centrist lawmakers, has also floated increasing the gas tax as a possible way to pay for an infrastructure bill.

more
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/552943-wyden-funding-infrastructure-with-gas-tax-hike-a-big-mistake

[GtHawk]

The insanity of democrats, they want to eliminate all IC vehicles and replace them with electric while at the same time they want to fund infrastructure with a gas tax Next will come the plan to add a surcharge to every electric bill to fund infrastructure. I do think EV owners should be charged the equivalent of the gas tax to pay their fares share of wear and tear on the roads but no way do I agree with Buttjiggers plan to raise the gas tax.

[Smokin Joe]

The insanity of democrats, they want to eliminate all IC vehicles and replace them with electric while at the same time they want to fund infrastructure with a gas tax Next will come the plan to add a surcharge to every electric bill to fund infrastructure. I do think EV owners should be charged the equivalent of the gas tax to pay their fares share of wear and tear on the roads but no way do I agree with Buttjiggers plan to raise the gas tax.

It's an incredibly regressive tax, in that it hits people where they are already hurting from this administrations policies. Add to that that the average delivery driver working for a company can't even take a mileage deduction, and some folks who have been supplementing their incomes by trading miles on their vehicles for a check won't be able to do that either.

[PeteS in CA]

Corporations (and other businesses) do not pay taxes. The people who buy their products and services do.