President Biden says he's open to negotiations related to infrastructure proposal

President Biden said during remarks about his infrastructure proposal on Wednesday that he is open to negotiations.

Biden said that he and Vice President Kamala Harris "will be meeting with Republicans and Democrats to hear from everyone. And we'll be listening. We'll be open to good ideas and good faith negotiations. But here's what we won't be open to: We will not be open to doing nothing. Inaction simply is not an option," he said.

Biden said that he's open to alternative proposals regarding how to pay for the proposal, though he is unwilling to back any tax hikes on people earning under $400,000 per year. 

While the president as part of the "Made In America Tax Plan" has called for raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, Biden said he's open to the possibility of a rate lower than 28%, though he emphasized regarding the infrastructure proposal that "we gotta pay for this." He said that he has proposed "the best most rational way, in my view, the fairest way to pay for it. But there are many other ways as well. And I'm open."

"Under current law, corporations in the United States pay federal corporate income taxes levied at a 21 percent rate plus state corporate taxes that range from zero to 11.5 percent, resulting in a combined average top tax rate of 25.8 percent in 2021," according to the Tax Foundation. "If the federal corporate tax rate were raised to 28 percent this year, corporations operating in 32 states and the District of Columbia would face the highest combined corporate tax rate in the OECD, a distinction currently held by France with a 32.0 percent rate. Next year, France will lower its corporate tax rate to 25.8 percent, leaving Portugal with the highest corporate tax rate in the OECD at 31.5 percent."