Amazon billionaire founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who is under scrutiny for the company’s anti-union campaign, said Tuesday that the company supports President Joe Biden’s focus on infrastructure and an increase in the tax rate supported.
“We support the Biden administration’s focus on making risky investments in US infrastructure. “Both Democrats and Republicans have supported infrastructure in the past and this is the right time to work together to make it happen,” Bezos said in a statement.
“We realize that this investment will require concessions from all sides – both on the details of what is included in it and on how it is paid (we support an increase in the tax rate). We look forward to Congress and the Administration to find the right, balanced solution that maintains or improves American competitiveness. ”
Biden last month unveiled its $ 2 billion infrastructure proposal, the U.S. Jobs Plan, in a carpentry training facility in Pittsburgh. The president will create millions of jobs, rebuild 20,000 kilometers of roads, expand access to clean water and broadband, and invest in the care of the elderly.
The proposal, which would be spent over eight years, would pay for more than 15 years by raising the tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent, ending the tax cuts in the Trump era.
Biden urged Congress to act on its proposal, arguing that the failure of the middle class would contribute to the weakening of the middle class and leave the US with a competitive disadvantage abroad.
However, lawmakers seem to disagree on the proposal. Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate West Virginia Democrat, for example, said he would raise the bill against raising the tax rate to 28 percent to pay for infrastructure; he said he would rather have a 25 percent rate. Manchin noted that a handful of other Democrats agree with him.
The support of Amazon, which is the second largest employer in the country, could move the needle. However, the company is facing setbacks due to its efforts to smash unions in its warehouses and its Whole Foods grocery stores.
Biden came out in support of union organization, including in Alabama, where Amazon employees in Bessemer are amid a precedent-setting vote to form a union.
