WASHINGTON—President Biden will unveil a $2 trillion infrastructure plan centered on fixing roads and bridges, expanding broadband internet access and boosting funding for research and development, while proposing an expansive increase in corporate taxes to pay for the package.
Mr. Biden will unveil the proposal during a Wednesday afternoon speech in Pittsburgh, where he kicked off his presidential campaign. He is expected to make the case that the investments are necessary to help the U.S. compete with China and tackle climate change.
The measure, which comes after Mr. Biden signed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill into law, is the first of a two-part economic plan that the president hopes to move through Congress in the coming months. A second plan focused on child care, healthcare and education will be released in April. The president’s advisers have said the Covid-19 pandemic shifted American attitudes about the role government should play in their lives, making political space for once-in-a-generation federal investments that could reshape the country.
But the measure faces clear obstacles. Among them: opposition from Republicans to significant tax increases, concern from moderate Democrats about big spending and stirrings from progressives that Mr. Biden’s plan isn’t ambitious enough.
The White House said the proposal will cost $2 trillion over eight years and would be paid for over 15 years by raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% and increasing taxes on companies’ foreign earnings. The tax changes would revamp or replace much of the international tax structure that Congress built just four years ago in the law signed by then-President Donald Trump.
