Sen. Joe Manchin on Thursday expressed his opposition to President Trump’s tax proposals, saying their “top-down, highly divisive policies” had proven harmful to the region’s economy.
“The very tax and program changes that President Trump is proposing create a winner-take-all economic model that is shortsighted, damaging and very problematic for the Mid-Atlantic Region,” Manchin, D-W.Va., said in a statement.
Manchin referenced a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, which found that last year’s tax reform bill in Congress left the region with less tax revenue to spend in its communities. Other economists have issued similar findings.
In the wake of the 2017 tax overhaul, Manchin voted against the bill, and he remains a key swing vote on the House-Senate tax reform conference committee, which is hammering out legislation for a larger package that both chambers will vote on. Manchin is one of several Democrats on the conference committee whose votes may be key to breaking the party’s opposition to the package.
The details of the president’s proposals remain unresolved, and the tax reform committee is expected to meet through the weekend.
The first draft of the proposal has called for a lower corporate tax rate that would only apply to overseas earnings with U.S. subsidiaries, and an overhaul of the individual tax code that would eliminate many of the deductions people take on their federal tax returns.
