When Sen. Mitch McConnell says he is "100 percent" focused "on stopping" any initiative from President Joe Biden, he should be believed. When he says that he's got his entire conference behind him—"What we have in the United States Senate is totally unity from Susan Collins to Ted Cruz in opposition to what the new Biden administration is trying to do to this country"—believe that, too.
And when some anonymous Republican claims, "Republicans did increase their offer and have been working in good faith with the White House" on infrastructure, you can definitely know that they are lying. Because they won't buck McConnell. From Collins to Cruz, they share a commitment to block Biden and block the Democrats from succeeding.
Capitol Hill reporter Jamie Dupree notes that the Republicans still have not submitted a full offer to the White House, though they may have increased the top line for a package they'll never vote for to $700 billion, paid for by diverting COVID-19 relief money, which didn't go over too well at the White House. "We certainly, in that scenario, would need to assess whether these funds are needed and not take them away from fighting the pandemic," said Press Secretary Jen Psaki. It's also not that clear that there's actually $700 billion in unspent COVID-19 relief money, unless Republicans plan on clawing back funding that state, local, and tribal governments are making plans for using in the next several years.
Next thing you know, they'll be asking the White House to check underneath all the cushions for loose change. Because they sure as hell won't be voting for any increase in taxes for corporations and the super rich.
Nevertheless, the White House just told Senate Republicans they’ll trim about $550 billion out of their proposal, largely by cutting their broadband asks and by shifting spending on manufacturing, supply chains, small business, and research and development to other pieces of legislation.
Senate Republicans responded that the offer was “not an encouraging one,” according to a GOP official. What a shock.
Here's one of those Republicans who is so pleased that Biden is working with them in "good faith"—Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. He says: "I’m encouraged by the President’s willingness to negotiate." He also says: "Some provisions in the administration’s so-called infrastructure plan are so unrelated to infrastructure, it’s hard to read them with a straight face." And: "What Congress shouldn't do is spend more taxpayer dollars to achieve liberal wish-lists that expand the welfare state." Then he actually ends with: "If all sides are willing to negotiate in good faith, an agreement can be struck."
Right. That's a statement just oozing with good faith. But the White House is still plugging away at it, with a meeting of advisers including Steve Ricchetti and Head of Legislative Affairs Louisa Terrell scheduled for Friday. That's after Biden met with them two weeks ago, and after he had the Transportation and Commerce secretaries meet with them, and has also instructed top aides to go to Capitol Hill with them. Last week Biden asked the Republicans to have their counteroffer ready for him this Tuesday. It wasn't.
"[T]here was 'not a significantly changed offer' from the Republicans during their meeting with the administration this week, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the private negotiations," AP reports. But lead Republican negotiator Sen. Shelley Moore Capito either doesn't understand the meaning of "come back with a new offer," or she's trying to gaslight us all. She says that she expects the White House to respond to her by the end of the week. Maybe this is the whole problem—their lead negotiator doesn't know what "negotiation" means.
Even House Republicans have managed to come up with something concrete. Laughable and relatively tiny, but concrete with actual numbers assigned to things.
As a reminder, the Biden plan includes $2 trillion in jobs and infrastructure: $621 billion for transportation including roads, bridges, ports, airports, public transit, and electric vehicle charging stations; $80 billion for rail; $111 billion for replacing lead water pipes and replacing old sewer lines; $100 billion for national broadband internet; $100 billion for upgrades to the electric grid to deliver clean energy; $300 billion toward building and retrofitting homes; and $400 billion to provide care for the elderly and people with disabilities.
All of this is massively popular with the American public. They particularly like the part about about raising taxes on the wealthy and on corporations. Last month, a Quinnipiac University poll found that "support for Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure and jobs plan grows by 9 points if it is attached to a corporate tax increase."
That popularity, however, can erode the longer this drags on. That's something Democrats are well aware of, and getting increasingly antsy about. Because they know Republicans as well as anyone.
"I do not think that the White House should relegate recovery to the judgment of Mitch McConnell, because he will not function in good faith," New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said earlier this week. "So, I just think it's a terrible political misstep."
That means it's time to start making plans to pass the damn thing
with budget reconciliation, where Republican votes aren't needed, and
working Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to get it done. This
week, with the Republicans doing their amoral worst, demonstrated that there is zero good faith from them. Even Manchin shouldn't be capable of praying that away.
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