Republicans' Plan to Sink Biden's Infrastructure Bill: Lots of Whining, No Solutions

[babylonsister]

Last edited Fri Apr 2, 2021, 09:37 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/04/republicans-plan-to-sink-joe-biden-infrastructure-bill-lots-of-whining-no-solutions

Infrastructure
Republicans’ Plan to Sink Biden’s Infrastructure Bill: Lots of Whining, No Solutions
The plan of attack, as usual, is to negotiate in bad faith—i.e. without real desire to reach a compromise. Luckily, Biden’s chief of staff has indicated that the administration has a very low tolerance for Mitch McConnell’s shenanigans.
By Eric Lutz
April 2, 2021

snip//

That approach was summarized neatly by his chief of staff, Ron Klain, in a Politico interview Thursday. Speaking about the first part of the infrastructure plan Biden announced Wednesday, Klain described the administration as open to collaborating with members of his party and Republicans to develop a proposal. “Let’s work together and see if there’s a way for us to deliver this,” Klain said. But in the next breath, he made clear that the administration would not mistake obstruction for the sake of obstruction—a hallmark of Mitch McConnell’s reign as the leader of Senate Republicans—for real negotiations. “The president was elected to do a job, and part of that job is to get this country ready to win the future,” Klain said. “That’s what he’s going to do.”

McConnell and the Republicans have, of course, already lined up against the plan. “I’m going to fight them every step of the way, because I think this is the wrong prescription for America,” the minority leader said in a news conference Thursday. “That package that they’re putting together now, as much as we would like to address infrastructure, is not going to get support from our side.” Part of the opposition will be based on characterizing Biden’s plans as a “‘kitchen sink’ of wasteful progressive demands,” as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy put it Thursday. Another part will be complaining that they’re being shut out of the process. “A Senate evenly split between both parties and a bare Democratic House majority are hardly a mandate to ‘go it alone,’” Mitt Romney tweeted Thursday. “The President should live up to the bipartisanship he preached in his inaugural address.”

But bipartisanship only works if each side is working in good faith. Biden’s American Jobs Plan may define “infrastructure” more broadly than some, particularly Republicans, might—and he may have to double-check some of the math behind it. But it puts forth real solutions to real problems facing the country, and would likely create real jobs along the way. “Let’s start on the areas where we agree,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said earlier this week. “If people have alternative proposals, we’re happy to hear them.” So far, the Republican opposition seems to be shaping up to look a lot like their crusade against Obamacare: they had four years to do something about it but didn’t and are offering objections without any counter-proposals. “The Biden ‘infrastructure plan’ is not about improving America’s infrastructure,” Republican Senator Tim Scott wrote the day the president unveiled it. “It’s yet another Trojan horse for the far Left’s agenda.”

Biden’s bet is that the American people, including Republican voters, won’t see it that way. He was already proven right once: no Republican senators voted for his COVID package, but the American people—including a significant portion of Republican and Republican-leaning voters—overwhelmingly supported it, and the GOP lawmakers who tried to keep it from passing have nevertheless seemed eager to claim credit for it. With voters right now broadly in support of raising taxes on the wealthy to fund infrastructure improvements, the Biden administration is hoping that GOP opposition to the bill is limited to Capitol Hill. “We know it has bipartisan support in the country,” Klain said Thursday. “And so we’re going to try our best to get bipartisan support here in Washington.” The lesson for Biden over the last 12 years, under Obama and Trump, is: don’t count on it.

[Hotler]

1. Repugs are still busy working on the "perfect" health care plan that we

were promised in 2-weeks five years ago......

[crickets]

2. K&R for visibility.

[Blue_true]

3. When do republicans EVER offer solutions other that tax cuts for the mega-rich and more guns? nt

[Claire Oh Nette]

4. Grassley

Grassley did this with Obama and the ACA legislation--asked for this and that carve out and change and give away, and still refused to vote for it.

Biden won't be fooled.

[sciencescience]

5. sounds like a good approach from the Biden administration