Rep. Richard Neal told Boston Public Radio on Thursday that he isn't ready to commit to President Joe Bien's plan to raise taxes on the rich to pay for expanded government services — or push other Democrats to support it.
Biden's $1.8 trillion American Families Plan would expand childcare services, extend child tax credits that were included in the most recent COVID-19 relief bill and expand public education through universal preschool programs and tuition-free community college.
Biden has said he'd pay for the plan by taxing high-income Americans, raising the top individual tax rate from 37% to 39.6% and raising the capital gains tax rate from 20% to 39.6% for taxpayers making over $1 million. He has also proposed raising the corporate tax rate to 28% to fund his sweeping infrastructure plan, though he has said that he's open to compromise on the size of the tax hike.
As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which sets tax policy, Neal has real power when it comes to establishing how federal dollars get spent. The Massachusetts Democrat said he does support the individual rate increase to 39.6%, citing similar rates under former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. But while Neal's own ideas for childcare mostly align with Biden, he isn't convinced that forcing Democrats to commit to the tax increases is a good political move at this stage.
"I'm not going to ask anybody in the House in the Democratic caucus to volunteer a certain source of revenue and then not have it happen, so they get pinned with the argument that they voted for a tax increase or they wanted a tax increase without getting it," he said.
Neal added that until he's "constructed the architecture" of the proposal and sorted out what lawmakers' appetite for spending is across the board, he won't push support for tax increases as the method of funding.
"There are many ways to attack this problem, and I intend to exercise those," he said.
Both Biden and Neal support a paid family and medical leave program and extended child tax credits, but Neal hopes to codify the child tax credits more permanently. Biden's plan only extends it through 2025.
Neal also discussed the prospect for high speed rail in Biden's infrastructure plan and said that while Amtrak isn't profitable in many parts of the country, the Boston-Washington-D.C. line has "enormous potential."
