WASHINGTON, D.C. (NAFB) – President Joe Biden’s economic team has adjusted higher the administration’s tax and spending figures for the massive infrastructure plan Biden will start unveiling today (Wednesday).

The original plan called for $3 trillion in new spending and $1 trillion in new tax hikes, sources told the Washington Post. But fear such a big gap would spike interest rates and federal debt payments spurred Biden’s economic team to ‘up’ its numbers to $3 trillion in tax hikes to fund $4-trillion in new spending.

Farm and other business groups were already eyeing the second big Biden effort ahead of the latest figures and after the passage of the nearly $2 trillion American Rescue Plan.

That’s American Farm Bureau Federation Congressional Relations Director Pat Wolf, who says the increases include rolling back the estate tax exemption.

Also being considered, a hike in the stepped-up basis that would boost capital gains taxes on farm assets sold and could cause a double hit at death on top of an estate tax hike.

That and other business and personal tax hikes to be followed by a social programs bill will make it even harder to pass the infrastructure package, even under special rules allowing for a simple Senate majority.

 

Republicans are already attacking Biden for backing huge spending and tax plans that would reverse many of former President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.