WASHINGTON – After a rough summer, President Joe Biden is getting ready to spend the autumn fighting over taxes.

Biden’s low approval rating and tired White House staff have been severely affected by his Covid-19 Delta variant surge, U.S. withdrawals from Afghanistan and wildfires, evictions, and inflation.

He will now turn his attention to the once in a generation expansion of social safety nets and infrastructure packages.

Biden will speak at the White House on Thursday about the reasons Congress must raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy to help fund his “Build back Better” program.

“The President will lay out what’s at stake in the fight to ensure that our economy delivers for middle class families, and not only for those at the top,” said a White House official, speaking on background to preview the speech ahead of its delivery.

Biden will say America needs to “choose whether or not we’re going to perpetuate an economy where the wealthiest taxpayers and biggest corporations get to play by a set of rules they’ve written for themselves while middle-class families aren’t given a fair shot.”

The president’s speech comes just a day after the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee voted to advance the tax portion of the social safety net bill.

This plan increases the top corporate and individual tax rates by 5.5 percent each, respectively. If it is enacted as written, the new federal corporate income tax rate will be 26.5% and the new top individual income tax bracket will be 39.6%,

The proposal also includes a 3% surcharge on individual income above $5 million and a capital gains tax of 25%.

Next, the House Budget Committee will review the tax proposals along with other parts of the bill which have been approved by different committees.

Voting in the Ways and Means Committee was the first step towards the Sept. 27 deadline House Democrats had set to vote on the $1 trillion Senate infrastructure bill and the $3.5 billion safety net bill.

In the coming 11 days, Senate Democrats and the House Democrats must write, vet and whip major changes to federal benefits that have been made since Obamacare was passed in 2010.

Biden will serve as both leader of the party and skilled negotiator within Congress.

On Wednesday, any doubts about the involvement of President Barack Obama in the legislative fight were dispelled when Biden held separate meetings at the White House, with Senator Krysten Sinema from Arizona and West Virginia, as well as Joe Manchin, the Senate’s most centrist Democrats.

Sinema as well as Manchin expressed concern about the scope and size of the social security net bill. Sinema raised concerns about the bill’s scope and Manchin voiced concern over tax hikes.

Biden needs the votes of all Democratic senators to pass the bill across party lines in the 50-50 split Senate. The tie-breaking vote is cast by Kamala Harris, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Public opinion has been a major factor in Biden’s favour so far. Americans by-and-large support In order to finance infrastructure and provide more benefits for the working family, we need to raise taxes on the rich and corporations.

Business groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (USC) and the Business Roundtable (USBRT), are determined to fight the tax hikes.

Some of the core Democratic proposals for increasing revenue are already showing cracks.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee failed Wednesday to approve a plan that would have given Medicare the ability to negotiate the prices of prescription drugs, and thus save the government billions.

Republicans joined three Democrats in voting no to the measure which was strongly opposed by the pharmaceutical sector.

This story is still developing. Keep checking back for more updates.