Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda Is For Scranton, Not Park Avenue — Just Look At Who’s Fighting Against It

October 20, 2021

MEMORANDUM
TO: Interested Parties
FROM: DNC War Room
DATE: October 20, 2021
RE: Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda Is For Scranton, Not Park Avenue — Just Look At Who’s Fighting Against It

President Biden’s agenda is for Scranton, not Park Avenue. It will provide transformational change for working families and finally hold big corporations and the wealthiest Americans accountable. How can you tell? Just take one look at who is fighting against it.

While Democrats are hard at work to bring the Build Back Better agenda across the finish line, Republicans are teaming up with corporate lobbyists and special interests to pour tens of millions of dollars into the fight to try and defeat President Biden’s Agenda. The rich and powerful are fighting so hard against this agenda because they know that not only will President Biden’s agenda lower costs for families, but it will finally ensure big corporations and the ultra wealthy pay their fair share and finally fork up the taxes they owe.

As Republicans try to block the Build Back Better Agenda, they know they can count on the Koch network, Big Pharma, and corporate lobbyists to stand shoulder to shoulder with them — and spend hundred of millions — in their fight:

The pharmaceutical and health care industries are opposing President Biden’s agenda to lower health care and drug costs, and have spent over $179 million on lobbying so far this year while employing nearly 1,500 registered lobbyists.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce itself is putting everything they have into trying to kill President Biden’s agenda and has already spent about $30 million this year on lobbyists.

The pharmaceutical industry’s leading lobbying group has already spent more than $15 million as the industry tries to defeat a measure to lower drug costs, and the executive chairman of Merck even admitted that they are fighting so hard to kill the proposal because they believe it would slash their revenue.

Private-equity firms are lobbying against measures to close tax loopholes and make the wealthiest pay their fair share as they stand to owe an additional $1 billion a year.

Of course, right-wing dark-money groups aligned with the Koch network and tied to the grim reaper himself Mitch McConnell, have skin in the game too. They have gone all out to try to sink President Biden’s agenda by spending millions on ads.

Reporting from Accountable.US also highlights the hypocrisy of some key corporate players advocating against President Biden’s agenda and makes clear why they are fighting so hard against it — it’ll hurt their bottom line:

“Johnson & Johnson, whose CFO pushed back on Biden’s proposed tax increases, avoided billions in taxes globally via the use of tax havens, holding tens of billions offshore accounts.”

“JPMorgan Chase, which categorized Biden’s tax increases as negative and had its CEO call them ‘a little crazy,’ held thousands of offshore subsidiaries located in tax havens and moved billions through them. The company also paid millions in fines for tax evasion, faced criminal charges for tax evasion in France, and formed secret agreements with a notorious tax haven’s government.”

“FedEx, whose CEO publicly opposed Biden’s proposed tax increases, formed secret agreements with a tax haven’s government which it used to pay a less-than-1% tax rate. FedEx paid a negative net tax rate in 2018 in part due to their use of tax avoidance strategies.”

“DuPont de Nemours, whose CFO said Biden’s proposed tax increases would damage US competitiveness, paid far less than the corporate tax rate for years, stashed billions offshore, and was forced to pay an SEC fine for failing to disclose executive compensation.”

“Walmart, which hired a lobbying firm to ‘[monitor] tax proposals related to infrastructure and the proposed American Jobs Plan,’ has stashed billions in offshore tax havens to avoid paying billions in federal taxes and engaged in a series of tax avoidance schemes to avoid paying millions in state and municipal taxes.”

Are Republicans really going to continue to oppose tax cuts for hard-working Americans in favor of the interests of wealthy corporations?

A report from the bipartisan, independent Joint Committee on Taxation confirmed that House Democrats’ tax plan would, on average, cut taxes for people earning under $200,000 a year through 2025. And President Biden has said that his agenda would not increase taxes on anyone making under $400,000 a year.

At the same time, the Build Back Better agenda will make sure the wealthiest Americans and big corporations, many of which paid no federal income taxes at all last year, pay their fair share in order to pay for tax cuts and lower costs for working families.

Are Republicans really prepared to go to the mat against a tax cut for the American people after they passed hundreds of billions of dollars of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and big corporations?

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