Infrastructure plan has tunnel vision
Rail line under river showcased in New York
NEW YORK — President Joe Biden on Tuesday showcased a $292 million mega grant that will be used to help build a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey.
The money is part of $1.2 billion in mega grants being awarded under the 2021 infrastructure law.
The president’s trip to New York City on Tuesday came on the heels of his stop Monday in Baltimore, where he pledged that government spending on infrastructure will boost economic growth and create blue-collar jobs.
The New York and Baltimore trips amount to a form of counterprogramming to the new House Republican majority. GOP lawmakers are seeking deep spending cuts in exchange for lifting the government’s legal borrowing limit, saying that federal expenditures are hurting growth and that the budget should be balanced.
House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy, R-calif., and Biden are scheduled to meet Wednesday, with the Republican lawmaker intending to press his case for spending cuts even though White House officials say Biden won’t negotiate over the need to increase the federal debt limit.
“I don’t think there’s anyone in America who doesn’t agree that there’s some wasteful Washington spending that we can eliminate,” Mccarthy told CBS News on Sunday.
Mitch Landrieu, the White House senior adviser responsible for coordinating implementation of the infrastructure law, told reporters Tuesday that if Republicans are looking to “take away money from projects, they ought to, I think, identify which projects they don’t want.”
Speaking at a political fundraiser in Manhattan following his speech about the Hudson tunnel, Biden called Mccarthy a “decent man” but said the Republican made “absolutely off-the-wall” commitments to seal the support of the most conservatives members of his party.
The event, hosted by former hedge fund executive Jeffrey Weber, raised $1 million for the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund.
Not everyone has been pleased by the mega grant program. Some Republican lawmakers in Arizona say it gave preference to mass transit and repair projects over expansion and new construction.