Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

04/30/2021 | Press release | Archived content

Brendan Dunn and Arshi Siddiqui Quoted in Investor’s Business Daily on Biden Infrastructure Plan

Investor's Business Daily has quoted Akin Gump public law and policy partners Brendan Dunn and Arshi Siddiqui in the article 'The Biden Tax Hikes Have A Math Problem; The S&P 500 Might Too.' The article examines the prospects for passage of President Biden's infrastructure plan as well as its impact on the stock market.

One of the President's proposals, the article notes, is to increase funding of the IRS by $80 billion over a decade, which the White House says could bring in an additional $700 billion in revenue. Dunn, though, doesn't think that money could be used to pay for a bipartisan infrastructure bill.

'A promise to more or less double IRS funding over a 10-year period coupled with promise of more audits and a window into everyone's cash flow - that doesn't strike me as a recipe for Republican support,' said Dunn, a former aide to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

Another revenue-raising option, IBD reports, could be to tax stock buybacks. 'At a macro level, stock buybacks have certainly been an area of focus on the Democratic side,' said Siddiqui, a former advisor and counsel to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. While buybacks have not yet gained attention as a pay-for, 'everything will be on the table as the bill moves through the legislative process,' she added.