President Joe Biden said he is optimistic Republican support for his $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure will come together. Still, senators have told him they are concerned about political challengers if they sign on.
“The well has been so poisoned,” Biden said during a CNN town hall in Ohio on Wednesday. “A lot of my Republican friends said, ‘Joe, I know you’re right. But if I do this, I’ll get primaried. And I’ll lose my primary. I’ll be in trouble.'”
“You had up to 20 Republicans sign the letter” on the deal, he said. “I come from a tradition in the Senate that you shake your hand, you make a deal.”
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“I think it’s going to get done,” he added, with lawmakers compromising to move the bill forward. Biden praised Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, the lead GOP negotiator working to secure the 10 Republican votes needed for the bill to move through the evenly divided Senate.
Asked whether Democrats should abandon bipartisanship, Biden demurred.
“I may be the wrong guy to talk to,” Biden said, adding he achieved much by working across the aisle during his time in the Senate and as vice president.
“I was able to get an awful lot of compromises put together to do really good things, to change things. And I still believe that’s possible,” he said.
Biden said people have waited years for an infrastructure package addressing roads and bridges to move through Congress.
“Remember, the last four years have been infrastructure week every week,” he quipped.
Asked about rising commodity prices, Biden waved off inflation concerns and said the infrastructure plan would boost jobs and spending. In June, U.S. consumer prices spiked by the largest increase since 2008, up by 0.9% and 5.4% from the same month last year, according to Labor Department data.
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Still, Biden urged support for the bill and the spending it entails.
“I’m the guy who wrote this,” he said. “It’s necessary.”
