Biden billionaire tax faces obstacles in Congress ahead of midterm elections

President Joe Biden's insistence that rich people pay their "fair share" is critical to the deficit reduction in his $5.8 trillion budget request for the fiscal year 2023 and Democrats' messaging before November's midterm elections.

But Biden's so-called "billionaire minimum income tax" faces a slew of obstacles in Congress, including already voiced opposition from West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.

Biden is proposing a 20% minimum tax on households with a net worth of more than $100 million, including unrealized capital gains. The White House projects the tax would raise roughly $360 billion over a decade from 20,000-odd people, such as Tesla's Elon Musk and Amazon's Jeff Bezos, addressing complaints some very high-income households pay low effective tax rates through deferral.

Despite warming to the idea of a billionaire's tax, Manchin told reporters Monday he still had reservations about taxing capital gains or “things you don’t have."