President Joe Biden called for quadrupling the tax on corporate stock buybacks, touted new investments in infrastructure and urged Republicans to raise the debt ceiling and protect Social Security in his State of the Union Speech Tuesday.
Citing record corporate profits and a host of needs for the country, Mr. Biden said the tax on stock buybacks should be raised to 4% from 1% in order to encourage long-term investments. "They will still make a considerable profit," he said of corporations and billionaires. "Let's finish the job and close the loopholes that allow the very wealthy to avoid paying their taxes."
Democrats in August passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, a major climate, health care and spending bill, that included provisions that established a 15% minimum corporate tax rate and levied a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks.
When speaking about the U.S. economy, the president exuded confidence and noted the low unemployment rate — 3.4% in January — and receding inflation — the consumer price index rose 6.5% in December from a year earlier, down from 7.1% year-over-year in November and a peak 9.1% in June.
On infrastructure, Mr. Biden said the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which Congress passed in November 2021 and included $550 billion in new spending for improvements to the nation's roads, bridges, public transit and rail systems, electric-vehicle infrastructure and broadband internet access, among other upgrades, has so far funded more than 20,000 projects across the country.
But while Mr. Biden spent a bulk of his address highlighting bipartisan accomplishments, he also went after Republicans over the looming debt ceiling fight.
Many Republicans in Congress have said they oppose raising the debt ceiling — a cap on the money the U.S. government can borrow to pay its bills — without structural spending reform. The federal government hit its statutory debt limit Jan. 19, and the Treasury Department might be out of options to pay U.S. bills come June, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said in a letter to congressional leaders last month. The debt ceiling does not authorize any new spending, but it allows the Treasury Department to finance the existing legal obligations already approved by Congress.
"Let's commit here tonight that the full faith and credit of the United States of America will never, ever be questioned," Mr. Biden said. "Some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage — I get it — unless I agree to their economic plans. All of you at home should know what their plans are. Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset" every five years and require congressional reapproval.
The last line drew a few groans from Republicans.
When the president then said lawmakers should agree not to cut Social Security or Medicare, members of both parties stood and clapped.
"Those benefits belong to the American people, they earned them," Mr. Biden said. "And if anyone tries to cut Social Security, which apparently no one is going to do … I will stop them."
