President Joe Biden will soon have to decide whether to cut a deal with Republicans on infrastructure or follow the Left’s lead and pass the biggest bill the tiny Democratic congressional majorities can muster.
It is the clearest test yet for the contradictory but successful sales pitch Biden made to the electorate last year. He vowed to use his Washington experience, including 36 years in the Senate, to reach across the aisle to get things done. This helped him win over suburban voters who often cast their ballots for Republicans before former President Donald Trump was the party’s standard-bearer. But he also sought to reassure left-wing voters, some of whom withheld their support from the Democratic ticket in 2016, that he could work with socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders to deliver the “most progressive administration” since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
On infrastructure, Biden could work with Republicans to pass a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan bill mainly funding traditional physical projects such as roads and bridges. But that would require him to forgo a more expansive definition of infrastructure that would fund other liberal policy priorities and broad-based tax increases, such as the hike in the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.
Biden met with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the lead Republican negotiator, on Wednesday for less than an hour. Liberals hope the brevity of the meeting is an indicator that the president is nearing the end of his rope with the GOP, though the White House called it a “constructive and frank conversation” and said they would talk again Friday.
‘STILL IN THE GAME’: BIDEN AND THE GOP MEET AGAIN THIS WEEK ON INFRASTRUCTURE
“The anemic infrastructure plan from Sen. Capito and Senate Republicans will do far less for the working families of West Virginia and all across America than the Biden jobs plan will do,” Frank Clemente, executive director of the left-leaning group Americans for Tax Fairness, protested when the counteroffer was announced. “To pay for their infrastructure plan, the GOP wants to slash pandemic relief funds that are benefiting millions of families and communities instead of closing tax loopholes to make corporations pay their fair share.”
The grandsons of FDR and his most liberal vice president, Henry Wallace, have appealed to Biden’s desire to be seen as following in the footsteps of the most revered Democratic presidents.
“My grandfather would recognize and wholeheartedly support President Biden’s American Jobs Plan,” said James Roosevelt, Jr. in a statement. “FDR believed that a job was central to a worker’s dignity. While he sought to ensure that Americans would have food, clothing, and housing when they didn’t have a job, he never lost sight of the need to create and preserve jobs for all Americans.”
Their message: Ditch the Republicans, who turned “Infrastructure Week” into a punchline under Trump, and pass legislation that will fundamentally reshape the economy. That may prove a heavy lift with a 50-50 Senate and only a narrow Democratic majority in the House, but Biden has repeatedly signaled he won’t negotiate indefinitely.
The White House has treated these talks differently from the short-lived negotiations on the $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan.” Then, the parties were far apart on the price tag, and the bill was eventually passed on a straight party-line vote using reconciliation in the Senate to avoid a Republican-led filibuster. But the Biden team has stated there is more time to discuss infrastructure, and they believe their GOP interlocutors are negotiating in good faith.
“The president has a bit of experience legislating, and his approach is to look for means, ways we can find common ground,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Wednesday. “That’s exactly what he’s going to do when he meets with Sen. Capito this afternoon.”
Biden has lowered his nearly $2.3 trillion opening salvo to $1.7 trillion while Republicans have increased the spending in their counteroffer from $568 billion to $928 billion. The GOP proposal includes things like funding for expanded broadband in addition to roadways and waterways. But the two sides are still almost $800 billion apart and disagree on tax increases while Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has indicated he would like to schedule a vote sometime in July before the long August recess.
The White House outlined its concerns about the Republican infrastructure plan, noting some improvements. But a statement from Psaki expressed concerns it “still provides no substantial new funds for critical job-creating needs, such as fixing our veterans’ hospitals, building modern rail systems, repairing our transit systems, removing dangerous lead pipes, and powering America’s leadership in a job-creating clean energy economy, among other things.” She added that “the proposal on how to pay for the plan remains unclear” while House Democrats are urging Biden to stick to his commitment to include $400 billion to promote the “care economy.”
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This could be Biden’s last chance to pass a major bipartisan legislative initiative this term, as lawmakers’ focus will shift to the midterm elections next year. Republicans will try to win back control of Congress, which would further imperil what remains of Biden’s legislative agenda.
Democratic strategists believe voters will reward Biden for delivering even if he has to do so without Republican votes.
“If Republicans vote no,” one strategist said, “voters will remember that, too.”
