San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
GOP foes pledge to fight Biden plan
WASHINGTON — President Biden is setting about convincing America it needs his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, deputizing a fivemember “jobs Cabinet” to help in the effort. But the enormity of his task is clear after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s vowed to oppose the plan “every step of the way.”
Speaking last week in Kentucky, McConnell said the president will get no cooperation from the GOP, which objects to the corporate tax increases in the plan and says they would hurt America’s ability to compete in a global economy.
“We have some big philosophical differences, and that’s going to make it more and more difficult for us to reach bipartisan agreements,” the Republican leader said.
Biden on Friday noted that Republicans have been talking for years about the need to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, and he predicted GOP lawmakers will face pressure from their supporters if they don’t act.
“I think the Republican voters are going to have a lot to say about whether we get a lot of this done,” Biden said.
White House chief of staff Ron Klain said the key to any outreach is that the proposal’s ideas are already popular. Americans want smooth roads, safe bridges, reliable public transit, electric vehicles, drinkable water, new schools and investments in manufacturing, among the plan’s many components, he said.
“We kind of think it’s just right,“Klain said in a televised interview with Politico. “But we’re happy to have a conversation with people, less about the price tag, more about what are the elements that should be in the plan that people think are missing.”
Those conversations could be limited to Democrats as McConnell declared: “I’m going to fight them every step of the way.”
Biden told his Cabinet at its first meeting that he is enlisting several of them to help with the push: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
“Working with my team here at the White House, each Cabinet member will represent me in dealings with Congress, engage the public in selling the plan and help organize the details as we refine it and move forward,” Biden said.
The task will involve lots of salesmanship for a legacymaking piece of legislation. “Changes in my plan are certain,” Biden acknowledged, “but inaction is not an option.”
His administration must sway Congress. It needs to rally voters. It’s also looking to outside economists to back the plan.
Biden’s vehicle for financing his infrastructure plans is a key dividing line. Republicans object to raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, one of the many changes so that business taxes would fund infrastructure. Republicans had cut the corporate rate from 35% in 2017, a hallmark policy achievement of Donald Trump’s presidency.