Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that President Biden wanted Congress to act on his $2 trillion infrastructure package by Memorial Day.
Buttigieg said, “I think we’re going to find a really strong, good deal space on this because, again, most Americans want to get it done.”
He continued, “The American people like this plan, even more, when you explain how we’re going to pay for it. The reason is simple — that corporations, like we all know, have not been paying their fair share. They’re paying zero on millions of dollars in profits. They’re paying less than a firefighter or a school teacher, not just in percent terms, but in dollar terms, and that’s wrong. We’re going to reset the corporate tax rate to a rate that is, by the way, still lower than it’s been for most of my lifetime, and has been a rate where America has been perfectly competitive for decades, and in doing that, create again, by some estimates, 19 million good-paying jobs, most of which don’t require somebody to have a college degree.”
He added, “We know that this is entering a legislative process where we’re going to be hearing from both sides of the aisle, and I think you’ll find the president’s got a very open mind. But time is of the essence. So we’ll look at these ideas on how to pay for it. We’ll look at ideas on where the investments ought to be, too. But the president is hoping for major progress from Congress before Memorial Day. And we can’t allow this thing to just keep dragging on because the need is there today.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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