Washington – Business Roundtable President & CEO Joshua Bolten today issued the following statement in response to President Biden’s joint address to Congress:
“Tonight, President Biden outlined a vision to address the many significant challenges facing our country. First, Business Roundtable welcomes his commitment to ending the COVID-19 pandemic through vaccine production, distribution and access. Our companies remain committed to doing our part, including by providing paid time off and incentives to encourage employees to get vaccinated.
“Business leaders strongly support the effort to reinvigorate the U.S. economy by upgrading the nation’s physical infrastructure—including broadband—a vital investment in America’s economic future that would result in tangible economic benefits for American families. We would not support increasing taxes on corporations, which would slow economic recovery and hurt American job creators and employees.
“Leading U.S. employers also support increasing access and affordability to childcare and college, training our workforce, sparking U.S. investment, accelerating innovation, addressing climate change, modernizing the immigration system and empowering the United States to out-compete China and other countries. We need to open markets and set the rules of the global economy to ensure American workers, farmers and businesses are treated fairly and reach billions of customers around the world.
“We are deeply concerned, however, by the cost of the President’s proposals and the reliance on tax increases that would hurt U.S. competitiveness, job creation and particularly the small business sector—which is the backbone of the U.S. economy. Especially in the context of the recovery, we need to avoid imposing any burdens that would make it harder for small businesses to recover and create jobs.
“Business Roundtable is committed to working with the Administration and both parties in Congress to address our nation’s challenges in a way that benefits, not harms, American job creators and workers.”