Peter ‘principle’
Buttigieg tapped to push Biden’s $2.3T plan thru Congress
President Biden tapped five of his cabinet secretaries on Thursday to spearhead an effort to get his freshly-unveiled $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan through Congress, tasking them with what’s likely to be a tough job as Republicans balk at the wide-ranging spending package.
Biden, speaking at his first full cabinet meeting in the East Room of the White House, said the push for his “American Jobs Plan” will be led by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh.
“These cabinet members will represent me in dealing with Congress, engage the public in selling the plan, and help work out the details as we refine it and move forward,” Biden said at the outset of the meeting.
The president did not take any questions before reporters were led out of the room.
Buttigieg, as the Transportation Department’s top honcho, is likely to play an especially prominent role in that Biden’s infrastructure blueprint proposes to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into refurbishing public transportation, roadways, bridges, airports and other transit systems across the nation.
“The #AmericanJobsPlan not only modernizes our roads, bridges, and transit, it works to repair the damage done to communities of color through long-standing underinvestment and racist decisions of the past,” Buttigieg tweeted after the cabinet meeting.
Still, the $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal, which Biden rolled out during an event in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, is likely going to be a tough sell in Congress.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters Thursday that Biden’s sweeping proposal “is not going to get support from our side.”
“I’m going to fight them every step of the way, because I think this is the wrong prescription for America,” McConnell said at a press conference in his home state.
Republicans are upset Biden is proposing to pay for the infrastructure investments by hiking the corporate tax rate from the current 21% to 28%.
Biden has pushed back by noting that the corporate rate used to be 35% before former President Donald Trump slashed it to 21% with his signature 2017 tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy.
The American Jobs Plan proposes the most wide-ranging transformation of the U.S. economy since the New Deal.
Beyond investing in physical transportation-related infrastructure, the multitrillion dollar blueprint would modernize power grids, expand internet access, incentivize green energy projects and make affordable housing units more climate-friendly.
An overarching goal of the infrastructure package is to make the nation less reliant on fossil fuels as Biden vows to achieve net-zero carbon emissions in the U.S. by 2050. Another overarching goal is to create millions of blue-collar jobs.
The House, which is controlled by Democrats, is likely to be able to pass Biden’s plan without difficult hiccups.
But Senate Democrats are in for a tougher challenge.
Legislation generally requires 60 votes to pass in the Senate, putting the chamber’s 50 Democrats in a bind as McConnell vows that his 50 members will fight the package tooth and nail.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), however, is entertaining the idea of using the complicated reconciliation budgetary process to be able to pass Biden’s proposed legislation without any Republican support.
“I will work with (Biden) to pass a big, bold plan that will drive America forward for decades to come,” Schumer tweeted Thursday.