Senate Republican targets infrastructure package’s effect on small business job creators

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said Sunday that a proposal to increase taxes on small businesses under President Biden’s infrastructure plan would be a bad idea. 

Wicker called Biden’s proposal “a massive social welfare spending program combined with a massive tax increase on small business job creators.”

“I can’t think of a worse thing to do that Senator — [Energy] Secretary [Jennifer] Granholm was talking about bringing us out of this recession caused by COVID. I can’t think of a worse tax to put on the American people than — than to raise taxes on small business job creators which is what this bill would do,” Wicker said on ABC’s “This Week.”

The Mississippi Republican still left open the idea that Republicans would negotiate on a package, albeit on that is much smaller in cost.

Sen. Wicker on Pres. Biden’s infrastructure proposal: “I can’t think of a worse tax to put on the American people than to raise taxes on small business job creators, which is what this bill would do.” https://t.co/MLMwtBqEVj pic.twitter.com/dj0nmm3F1L

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 11, 2021

When host George Stephanopoulos mentioned that the corporate tax cuts will be lower than it was in Trump’s administration, Wicker thought otherwise.

“Well, I totally disagree. Back in February of 2020, before the COVID recession hit us, unemployment rate was 3.5 percent, an unheard of low amount. A lot of people re-entering the workforce, including minority work participation, veteran work participation, female job participation. It was up, and we had 3.5 percent unemployment.” 

Wicker said that he will meet with Biden Monday to discuss the optics of the infrastructure plan.

“We are willing to negotiate with him on an infrastructure package, and this trillion dollar number is way too high for me, I’ll just tell you. But negotiation has to be something different from what we had on the rescue plan,”  Wicker said.