Taxpayer advocacy group rallies to urge Axne to oppose Biden infrastructure plan
(The Center Square) – Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips rallied Iowans April 19 to oppose President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan.
Phillips also urged state residents canvas the congressional district of U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne, D-IA-3.
“In this legislation will be the largest tax increase in over three decades in this country, and that’s at a moment when we’re slowly pulling out of a devastating pandemic that’s harmed the economy,” Phillips said. “What a terrible time to raise taxes on American families and business – especially small businesses.”
In Iowa, the combined state and federal corporate tax rate would be 35.1%, tying for the third highest levy in the country, according to a new study from the Tax Foundation.
“Large provisions of the Green New Deal – spending, regulation, government red tape all for ideological purposes – are in this bill,” Phillips added.
He said the bill’s spending on electric cars is higher than its spending on “all of the roads and rails put together.”
Proposed spending related to electric vehicles includes $174 billion “to win the EV market” and create “good jobs” in the industry.
Other proposed spending includes a $15 billion investment in climate research and development projects as well as a $46 billion investment in federal buying power “creating good-paying jobs and reinvigorating local economies, especially in rural areas” that is needed for meeting Biden’s goal of achieving “net-zero emissions” by 2050, which a fact sheet on the bill from the White House stated.
The fact sheet noted funding for modernizing American roads, bridges, highways, and main streets will include $115 billion while $20 billion will be used to improve road safety programs. Biden’s plan calls for an investment of $80 billion to pay for Amtrak’s “repair backlog;” modernizing the Northeast Corridor; improving existing corridors and connecting new “city pairs;” and enhancing grant and loan programs for rail safety, efficiency and electrification.
Iowa’s corporate tax rates, effective this year, are 5.5% for up to $100,000, 9% for $100,000 to $250,000, and 9.8% for over $250,000, according to the Iowa Department of Revenue. The current corporate income tax rate is 21%, and prior to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, it was at 35%, according to the Tax Foundation.
Phillips compared the current Washington political scene to a battleground, criticizing H.R.1 and the PRO Act, H.R.842, which have passed the U.S. House of Representatives on largely partisan voting lines. Axne is a co-sponsor on each.
“This is the first grassroots event in the country asking a member of Congress to stand up and put the people of her district and the folks back home and actual freedom and prosperity first instead of putting Nancy Pelosi’s interests first. … [Axne] has to ask herself ‘At what point do I go so far that the people back home won’t even recognize my voting record, they’ll think it’s someone from Massachusetts or San Francisco?’” Phillips said to the crowd gathered to hear him at Machine Shed Restaurant in Urbandale.
He said the group’s accountability effort goal is to knock on more than 10,000 doors by June 1 in the congressional district to ask voters if they are aware of Axne’s voting record.
“The United States, that’s still the land of the free,” Phillips said. “But I’m telling you, it doesn’t necessarily always have to be that way. We have to work for it. We have to defend it and preserve it. And we’re engaged in an enormous competition right now for the very future of this nation.”
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