Biden Economist Defends Budget in Shot at Trump 2017 Tax Cuts

(Bloomberg) -- White House economic adviser Bharat Ramamurti defended President Joe Biden’s plan to raise taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations by jabbing Republicans who voted for Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.

“I’m not going to take a lecture from the same Republicans who voted for a $2 trillion tax cut a few years ago that had no discernible impact on business investment and that exploded the deficit by between $1 trillion and $2 trillion,” Ramamurti said Friday in an interview on Bloomberg Surveillance.

Ramamurti argued that Biden’s $1.7 trillion infrastructure package -- and his proposal to raise taxes on corporations -- is an investment in the U.S. economy and that it wouldn’t hamper growth. He said that essential components of the plan include increasing broadband Internet access in rural areas and removing lead pipes, particularly because some are in places where there are schools and childcare facilities.

“There’s clearly capacity for these companies to pay more in taxes to help finance the investments that, by the way, are going to be good for those companies in the long-run: better roads and bridges, broadband Internet and so on. This is a win-win scenario,” he said.

The White House, which is expected to release its budget today, has been in negotiations with Republicans on the infrastructure plan. Republicans have underscored that they wouldn’t consider any rollback of the 2017 tax cuts they enacted.

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