USA TODAY International Edition
Republicans pan Biden’s spending plan as overly broad
WASHINGTON – Before President Joe Biden even offered specifics of his aim to fix the nation’s roads, bridges and railways, Republicans he’ll need to work with in Congress panned it, saying it goes too far beyond traditional infrastructure spending and comparing its climate aspects to the Green New Deal.
Republicans argue the package should be limited to transportation, broadband internet and other basics, not green energy like Biden has touted since he was a candidate. Biden doesn’t want to just fix roads, Republicans warn, he wants to upend American life.
They’ve also balked at raising taxes – long a sticking point for Republicans to get behind big- ticket Democratic programs. To find bipartisan support, the president will have to persuade skeptical Republicans to support an increase of the corporate tax rate to pay for infrastructure and a wide range of other spending.
These dynamics foreshadow a possi
ble repeat of Biden’s first major legislative victory, when he won approval of a $ 1.9 trillion COVID- 19 relief package, the American Rescue Plan, last month without a single Republican supporter in Congress.
“What taxes are the Republicans who want infrastructure spending for?” said Matt Grossman, who heads the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research at Michigan State University. “I think the answer is not many. And if so, they won’t be ones that Democrats are likely to support. So that, right off the top, limits the potential for bipartisanship pretty fundamentally.”
Biden’s proposal – in addition to addressing roads, bridges, railways and broadband – includes spending on manufacturing, research and development and “the caregiving economy.”
‘ A Trojan horse,’ GOP warns
The White House has billed the proposal as a way to create “good- paying union jobs” and a first step toward economic recovery amid the coronavirus pandemic. A second proposal in Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda addressing health care, education and child care is expected later in April.
To build their case for the large infusion of domestic spending, the White House said the U. S. ranks 13th globally in infrastructure quality, down from fifth in 2002, and significantly lags rival superpower China in infrastructure spending. More than one- third of America’s bridges need repairs, and one in every five highways are in poor condition.
“We know that 80% or more of people in this country, Democrats and Republicans, support investing in infrastructure,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
Yet Republican lawmakers have spent recent days fine- tuning their attacks.
“We’re hearing the next few months might bring a so- called infrastructure proposal that may actually be a Trojan horse for massive tax hikes and other job- killing left- wing policies,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, RKy., said from the Senate floor last week.
His office seized on recent comments from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, DN. Y., likening the proposal to the Green New Deal, a sweeping environmental effort pushed by Democrats to fight climate change. “Sold as an infrastructure plan,” warned Scott Sloofman, a top McConnell aide, it “actually intends to reshape the U. S. economy and other parts of American life.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R- W. Va., the leading Republican on the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, said she’s “very disappointed” the plan could include social programs in addition to infrastructure.
“They’re terming it ‘ social infrastructure.’ Never heard that before,” Capito said, predicting a hard legislative fight. “I think we need to talk to the American people and say: ‘ Is this what you envision with infrastructure? Are these job creators? Are we reengineering our own social fabric here with a 50- vote majority?’ ”
House Republicans warned Biden’s transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, that any plan that strays from core transportation priorities won’t get GOP support. “I don’t think the bill can grow into a multi- trillion- dollar catch- all,” s aid Missouri Rep. Sam Graves, the top Republican on the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. “A transportation bill needs to be a transportation bill, not a Green New Deal. It needs to be about roads and bridges.”
Former President Donald Trump repeatedly promised an infrastructure package but never delivered one.
The road to passage
Democrats could choose to pass the infrastructure legislation in the Senate through budget reconciliation – just like they did Biden’s COVID- 19 relief bill known as the American Rescue Plan – which would require just a simple majority in the evenly split chamber and therefore no Republican votes.
In an interview Monday on CNN, Buttigieg said he believes there’s “a tremendous opportunity now to have bipartisan support for a big, bold vision of infrastructure,” arguing Americans “don’t need a lot of selling” on the proposal.
He also defended the inclusion of green investments in the infrastructure package.
“You can’t separate the climate part from this vision,” he said, “because every road we fix, every bridge we build, we can either do it in a way that’s better for the climate or worse for the climate. Why wouldn’t we want to be creating these jobs in a way that’s better for the climate?”
Buttigieg said he believes the administration can get Republican votes on infrastructure, adding “We’re going to work with them to try shape it in a way that earns as much support as possible.”
To pay for the sweeping package, Biden wants to make large corporations pay more taxes. He will propose increasing the corporate tax rate to 28% and overhauling how the U. S. taxes multinational corporations by increasing the minimum tax on U. S. corporations to 21%. The White House eliminated user fees, such as a gas tax, to pay for the infrastructure plan.
Public support for infrastructure
A poll this month from The HillHarrisX found 54% of American voters believe an infrastructure package should be a priority right now for the federal government, compared with 46% who said other initiatives should. Sixty percent of Democrats, 54% of independents and 46% of Republicans agreed infrastructure should be prioritized.
“To have a bill like this that can generate jobs, help improve transportation, and infrastructure in general is a win- win all around,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center. “Paying for it, obviously, is going to be the sticking point for Republicans.”
Green energy investments are also popular among the public, according to Grossman. And while polls generally find opposition to raising the federal tax on gas to pay for infrastructure, the public gives higher marks to raising taxes for corporations and higher- income Americans.
“In that sense, this developing bill does have the potential to at least start out with bipartisan support in the public,” Grossman said.
Such a scenario would also reflect the dynamics of Biden’s relief bill, which multiple polls found was backed by more than 70% of Americans. But as Biden learned, that doesn’t mean Republicans in Congress will jump on board.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S. C., called an infrastructure package the “the best chance” for Republicans and Democrats to do something together, saying “Everybody needs roads and bridges and ports.”
But, he added, “we just want to make sure it’s related to infrastructure.”