Washington (CNN) Sen. Joe Manchin, an influential centrist Democrat, warned Monday that the Biden administration's massive infrastructure package can't pass in its current form because he and a handful of other Senate Democrats believe the corporate tax hikes proposed in the bill -- designed to offset its costs -- are too steep. "As the bill exists today, it needs to be changed," he told West Virginia Metro News host Hoppy Kercheval in a radio interview when asked if he supported or opposed President Joe Biden's $2.25 trillion proposal. Manchin said he is against raising the current 21% corporate tax rate -- which was put in place by the 2017 tax overhaul under the Trump administration -- to 28% as called for in the bill and instead supports a middle ground 25% rate, which he called "fair." There are six or seven other Democrats who feel very strongly about this. We have to be competitive and we're not going to throw caution to the wind," he said without revealing who the other Democrats are.

Source: CNN April 05, 2021 20:15 UTC