WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Sen. Kirsten Sinema’s views remained a mystery Monday as party leaders eyed a vote later this week on their emerging economic legislation and both parties pointed to dueling surveys they used to praise or downplay the impact of the measure.
With Democrats needing all 50 of their votes for the energy and health care measure to pass the Senate, a Sinema spokesman suggested the Arizona lawmaker would take his time revealing his decision. Hannah Hurley said Sinema was reviewing the bill and “will have to see what comes out of the parliamentary process.” It could take days for a chamber rules judge to decide whether the measure violates procedural guidelines and needs changes.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., and Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., announced an agreement last week on legislation that raises taxes on huge corporations and wealthy individuals, supports efforts on fossil fuels and climate change, and limits drug prices. Overall, it would raise $739 billion over 10 years in revenue and spend $433 billion, leaving more than $300 billion to modestly reduce the federal deficit.
The legislation would give President Joe Biden a victory on his domestic agenda ahead of congressional elections this fall. If Sinema seeks change, she will face enormous pressure to strike a deal with top Democrats and avoid a campaign season defeat that would be a major blow to her party’s prospects in November.
Manchin is one of the most conservative and adversarial Democrats in Congress. He spent more than a year forcing his party to sharply scale back its economic proposals, citing inflation fears, and his compromise with Schumer last week shocked colleagues who had given up hope that he would agree to such a sweeping measure.
Sinema plays a lesser-known but similar role to Manchin, a lawmaker who can be unpredictable and willing to use the leverage that all Democrats have in the 50-50 Senate. Last year, she praised the proposal for a minimum tax on large corporations – which the new legislation has – but also expressed opposition to raising corporate or individual tax rates.
“She has a lot in this bill,” Manchin told reporters Monday, citing his support for previous efforts to curb prescription drug prices. He said she had been “very adamant” not to raise taxes, adding: “I feel the same way.”
Manchin argued that the bill’s imposition of a 15 percent minimum tax on corporations that make more than $1 billion a year is not a tax increase. He says this closes the loopholes such companies use to avoid paying the current 21% corporation tax.
Republicans scoffed at this reasoning and said that raising taxes would weaken the economy and kill jobs. They cited a report by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation in Congress that found about half of the corporate minimum tax would hit manufacturing firms.
“So in the middle of a supply chain crisis, Democrats want massive job-killing tax increases that will disproportionately crush American manufacturing and manufacturing jobs,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Biden said he would not raise taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year. Manchin said the Democratic package is keeping that promise.
Republicans recently released another Joint Committee on Taxation analysis that said the measure would raise taxes for people with incomes below that figure. Democrats criticized the study as incomplete, saying it missed the impact on middle-class families of the bill’s health insurance subsidies and clean energy tax cuts.
Democrats pointed to a report by Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. It said the measure “will push the economy and inflation in the right direction, while tackling climate change and reducing the government’s budget deficit”.
Schumer said he expected a vote to begin this week in the Senate, where Vice President Kamala Harris could cast the deciding vote to ensure its passage. The closely divided House left town for vacation in August, but Democratic leaders said they would bring lawmakers back for a vote, possibly next week.
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