Key players in the Capitol Hill budget debate are deadlocking over the U.S. corporate tax rate.
Senate Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wants to push that rate up from the current 21 percent to 35 percent, the corporate tax rate before the 2017 Republican tax cuts. President Biden has proposed hiking the current rate to 28 percent. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has set his sweet spot at 25 percent.
Other than arm wrestling, how could all the players here resolve their differences? They could top off a corporate tax rate increase with a CEO pay surtax — an extra levy on firms that pay their top executives absurdly more than their typical workers.
This approach would have two appealing selling points for Manchin and other moderate Dems.
Sarah Anderson directs the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and is a co-editor of the IPS web site Inequality.org. Follow her at @SarahDAnderson1.
