On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Closing Bell,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) reacted to claims by the National Association of Manufacturers that the taxes in the reconciliation bill will hurt the manufacturing sector and reduce GDP and labor income by stating that the Joint Committee on Taxation’s claims that the bill would raise taxes on people making $200,000 aren’t true, the JCT analysis was done only by the Republican side of the Committee, and “a lot of this is being skewed right now.”
Manchin stated that “all we’re saying is, companies who aren’t paying or are paying very [little], if any at all, and there [are] 55 of the largest corporations, this only affects, Sara, companies that have a billion dollars of revenue or greater annually that are even going to be evaluated this way to pay a 15% minimum. And I just can’t believe that these patriotic companies don’t want to help this country defend itself and be able to do what we need to do to be the superpower of the world.”
Host Sara Eisen then asked, “Well, JCT found that 50% of those companies would be America’s manufacturing companies at a time where, Sen. Manchin, we’re trying to re-shore American manufacturing, aren’t we? So, doesn’t that hurt their hiring and investing decisions?”
Manchin answered, “If you thought it was going to hurt, don’t you think the last two years it would’ve — you would’ve seen record capital investments? And you’ve seen the least amount of capital investments with record profits. So, the only thing we’re saying is the thing they tell me most, is reliability, making sure this government will let them do their job, permitting regulations. And that’s what we’re going to basically accelerate and streamline to where people can — we can do things and build things much quicker than we ever have in the past. That’s all part of this package. So, it’s going to be wonderful from that end of it.”
Eisen then said, “Well, the National Association of Manufacturers [disagrees]. They say that the tax in 2023 alone will reduce GDP by $68.5 billion, cut labor income by $17.1 billion. That’s problematic.”
Manchin responded, “I’ve heard also that the CDC, you’ve heard about that — the joint tax — I’m sorry, the JCT, the Joint Committee on Taxation, you heard that they said it was going to cause people paying taxes that made $200,000, which is absolutely, totally a lie, that’s not the fact. What they’re not telling you, Sara, is that that only came out from one half, the Republican side. The [Joint Committee on Taxation] basically has two sides. You have a Republican side, a Democrat side, they work together. When they have a joint statement, it’s basically by both sides. This only came from one side. So, a lot of this is being skewed right now. We are, for the first time, we’re paying down our debt, $300 billion. Haven’t done that in 25 years, not in 25 years, we’re paying down debt. We’re increasing production of the energy.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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