Biden to trigger tax fight Senate Democrats don’t want

President Biden will trigger a fight over raising taxes when he introduces his budget plan next week, something that Senate Democrats who face a tough road ahead to protect their majority aren’t clamoring for, especially in West Virginia, Montana and Arizona.   

Democrats campaigned on repealing the Trump-era tax cuts ahead of the 2020 election but fell short after Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) balked at key elements of Biden’s tax plan, such as raising the corporate tax rate to 29 percent and the top marginal income tax rate to 28 percent.  

Talk of repealing any of the Trump tax cuts before the 2024 election had fallen off the table and Senate Democrats have recently steered clear of insisting that any deficit reduction plan that comes before Congress this year include big tax increases.  

Now Biden is putting the topic back in the national spotlight.  

“I want to make it clear. I’m gonna raise some taxes,” Biden declared at an event in Virginia Beach on Tuesday, previewing his March 9 budget proposal.  

Biden pledged that “no one … making less than $400,000 is going to pay a penny more in taxes.”