WASHINGTON – National Retail Federation president and CEO Matthew Shay responded to President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion “American Jobs Plan” by endorsing investments in the nation’s infrastructure, but arguing that hiking the corporate tax rate would hurt the economy.

“Improving U.S. roads, railways, bridges and ports will help the retail industry continue to move the products Americans want and need,” Shay said in a statement. “But burdening businesses with the biggest corporate rate increase in 70 years will lead to further closures and job cuts.

“Raising the tax rate on corporate income to the highest in the industrialized world, especially at a time when many businesses are still reeling from the impact of the pandemic, will not help us to recognize continued growth, spur job creation or encourage capital investment and will, in fact, deter domestic economic activity.

“Investment in infrastructure needs to be a priority, but this legislation appears to be less about improving infrastructure and a lot more about a political agenda, at the expense of sound economic policy that benefits all Americans.”