In Social Policy Bill, Businesses See a Lot to Like. They Oppose It.

“People say they are for this new stakeholder economy, that they are committed to sustainability,” said Hollender, now chairman of the liberal American Sustainable Business Council. “But at the same time there is a system of incentives aimed at maximizing profits, and when those profits are threatened, companies don’t like it.”

Other major business groups backed away on the allegation. Mr. Bradley of the Chamber of Commerce agreed that parts of the Democratic vision reflected the longstanding aspirations of the business lobby. Accessible childcare is a high priority and tackling climate change by investing in clean energy is long overdue.

“The government was right to increase the enforcement of the IRS to fill the tax loophole,” he added. “We want a growth-friendly tax law, but we want people to comply with this tax law.”

But he said the way the Democrats approached these issues – by hastily rounding them up into one massive $ 3.5 trillion measure that will be passed through an expedited process known as reconciliation – guaranteed opposition.

For example, corporate groups had worked with lawmakers from both parties to try to create a paid family and sick leave program that would be paid with a payroll tax shared by corporations, workers, and the government. In order to fulfill Mr. Biden’s promise not to levy taxes on anyone with an income below $ 400,000, the payroll tax has been removed and has been replaced with a variety of tax increases for wealthy people and businesses that are no longer affiliated with the program that they should finance.

“Paid family leave outside of a reconciliation context would require intense negotiation and compromise, but it would not be out of the question to find a proposal that we could support,” said Bradley. “Within the reconciliation it will only get worse.”

The Business Roundtable, which represents the heads of the country’s largest corporations, expressed a similar wish. “There is strong bipartisan support for some of these policies and we encourage Congress to take them up through this deliberative process rather than through reconciliation,” the group said in a statement.