Republicans may support smaller infrastructure plan
Senator calls for cutting proposal by two-thirds
WASHINGTON — Republicans may be ready to support limited infrastructure spending in President Joe Biden’s proposal, which would require scaling back the $2.25 trillion plan by more than two-thirds, a senior GOP senator said.
With Biden’s Americans Jobs Plan on the table for less than a week, administration officials and Senate Republicans took to the Sunday news shows to lay out opposing positions. As Biden faces calls from parts of the Democratic Party to go bigger, Republicans are focusing their opposition on a corporate tax rate increase they say would hold back job creation.
Brian Deese, who heads Biden’s National Economic Council, said the plan is a “one-time, eight-year capital investment” that tackles classic infrastructure projects such as repairing bridges, and includes investments aimed at promoting long-term job growth.
“It’ll expand our economy’s potential,” Deese said on “Fox News Sunday,” adding that “we have a long way to go” to restore U.S. employment to pre-pandemic levels in the shorter term.
Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, said bipartisan support is possible on improving facilities such as roads and airports, and possibly water systems and expanding broadband access — if the administration pared the package to something like $615 million.
“You’d still be talking about less than 30% of this entire package, and it’s an easily doable 30%, I think,” he said on Fox. “When people think about infrastructure, they’re thinking about roads, bridges, ports and airports.”
The very meaning of “infrastructure” needs a 21st century makeover, said Cecilia Rouse, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
“It’s important that we upgrade our definition of ‘infrastructure,’ one that meets the needs of a 21st century economy, and that means we need to be funding and incentivizing those structures that allow us to maximize our economic activity,” Rouse said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Republicans portrayed Biden’s bid to cover the cost of the package by raising the corporate income tax to 28% from 21%, a reversal from former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cut, as a non-starter that would kill jobs.
“Let me just tell you, that’s going to cut job creation in the United States of America,” Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” The 2017 tax cuts were “a plan that worked,” he said.
“I’m all for looking for ways to pay for it” without raising corporate taxes, Wicker said.
Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in his home state Thursday that his party won’t support the Biden plan as now written, “as much as we would like to address infrastructure.”
“The last thing the economy needs right now is a big, whopping tax increase,” McConnell told reporters.
Biden’s plan faces a tough road ahead in Congress as Republicans have already said they won’t vote for a measure paid for by tax increases. Some progressives say Biden’s plan isn’t large enough. Other congressional Democrats, including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden of Oregon, said he likes Biden’s direction but plans to release his own tax proposal to fund an infrastructure proposal.
Deese said the administration is willing to have a “conversation” on the plan. He declined to speculate about how much Biden might be willing to change his plan.
Biden introduced infrastructure focused economic plan Wednesday that seeks to upgrade the country’s roads, bridges, ports and water systems and pump money into semiconductor manufacturing, renewable energy and research and development.
The plan also directs funding into other long-held Democratic priorities, including electric vehicles, broadband internet and workforce development. Biden said these investments are critical to the country as it emerges from the pandemic and faces challenges related to climate change and a global economy.