Kyrsten Sinema stares down Democrats over increases in corporate, income taxes

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a top Democratic swing vote for the White House‘s legislative agenda, has ruled out scrapping the Trump-era tax cuts in order to pay for the entitlement and climate-change programs within President Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar partisan spending bill.

Ms. Sinema, Arizona Democrat, has told colleagues she will not support the more than 40 new tax increases being proposed.

House Democrats have proposed to pay for the $3.5 trillion expansion of the federal safety net by hiking corporate and income taxes. The current rates were set in 2017 by former President Trump’s signature overhaul of the tax code.

Also among the Democrats’ proposed tax increases is a doubling of the federal tobacco tax to more than $2 per pack.

Overall, the new and higher taxes add up to one of the largest tax increases in U.S. history. It also violates Mr. Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $400,000 annually.

An analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation, a special congressional panel made up of 10 senior lawmakers from both chambers of Congress, found that individuals making above $200,000 would see their tax burden increase under the plan.

Since Democrats planned to push the package along party lines in the 50-50 split Senate, Ms. Sinema’s opposition would kill any hopes for the tax increases.