Infrastructure deal slips, GOP pans $1.7T White House offer
Prospects for a vast infrastructure deal have been thrown into serious doubt
May 22, 2021, 8:30 AM
6 min read
A concrete pump frames the Capitol Dome during renovations and repairs to Lower Senate Park on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 18, 2021. President Joe Biden hopes to pass a massive national infrastructure plan by this summer but Democrats and Republicans in Congress appear divided over his proposal for $2.3 trillion in spending to upgrade the nation's crumbling infrastructure. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON -- The prospects for an ambitious infrastructure deal have been thrown into serious doubt after the White House reduced President Joe Biden's sweeping proposal to $1.7 trillion but Republican senators rejected the compromise as disappointing, saying "vast differences” remain.
While talks have not collapsed, the downbeat assessment is certain to mean new worries from Democrats that time is slipping to strike a deal. The president’s team is holding to a soft Memorial Day deadline to determine whether a compromise is within reach. Skepticism had been rising on all sides over the lack of significant movement off Biden's $2.3 trillion plan or the GOP's proposed $568 billion alternative.
“This proposal exhibits a willingness to come down in size,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki, disclosing the new offer Friday as talks were underway between key Cabinet secretaries and GOP senators at a crucial stage toward a deal.
But after the hourlong meeting, the Republicans quickly rejected the new approach as "well above the range” of a proposal that could win bipartisan support.
The two sides “seem further apart” than when negotiations began, according to a statement from an aide to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., the lead negotiator for the group of six GOP senators.
The White House and the Republican senators have been in talks ever since Biden met with a core group of Republican negotiators over the possibility of working together on an infrastructure plan. The White House dispatched the transportation and commerce secretaries and top aides to Capitol Hill to meet with the Republicans earlier this week, and they had a follow-up video call Friday.
According to a memo obtained by The Associated Press, the administration's new approach is cutting more than $550 billion from the president’s initial offer.
But the memo makes clear Biden is not interested in the Republicans’ idea of having consumers pay for the new investments through tolls, gas taxes or other fees. Instead, the administration is sticking with his proposal to raise corporate taxes to pay for the new investment, which is a red line for Republicans.
“Our approach should ensure that corporations are paying their fair share,” said the memo from the administration’s negotiators to the GOP senators.
But Republicans dismissed the new White House offer as “very marginal movement” on the topline without much difference in policy, according to a Republican aide familiar with the negotiations and granted anonymity to discuss them.
The new offer was “disappointing,” the aide said.
Securing a vast infrastructure plan is Biden’s top priority as he seeks to make good on his campaign pledge to “build back better” in the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis and the economic churn from a shifting economy. With narrow Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, the president is reaching out to Republicans for support on a potentially bipartisan approach rather than relying simply on his own party to muscle the proposal to passage.
But Republicans are adamantly opposed to Biden’s proposed corporate tax increase to pay for the package, refusing to undo the 2017 tax cuts, the party’s signature domestic accomplishment under President Donald Trump. They reduced the corporate rate from 35% to 21%. Biden proposes lifting the corporate tax to 28%.
“If they’re willing to settle on target a infrastructure bill without revisiting the 2017 tax bill we’ll work with them,” McConnell told Fox’s Larry Kudlow, a former Trump adviser.
