President Joe Biden wants to save infrastructure week from becoming a punchline after former President Donald Trump, putting his political capital on the line just two months into his term.
Biden will launch a campaign to pass his sweeping $2.25 trillion “American Jobs Plan” in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, the first of two proposals expected to invest up to $4 trillion in traditional and what he is calling “social” infrastructure to bolster a pandemic-battered economy and middle class.
Infrastructure was once considered a bipartisan priority. But Biden’s broad definition of the policy area will test that theory as he and his aides prepare to push their next far-reaching legislative agenda item through Congress with or without Republican support while holding their own party together.
BIDEN IS ALREADY FIXATING ON HIS LEGACY
The White House has not publicized how it believes it can pass its two latest “Build Back Better” bills on Capitol Hill. As he did with the $1.9 trillion coronavirus spending package, Biden has started negotiations by indicating his preference for collaboration. White House press secretary Jen Psaki has insisted Biden will leave the legislative strategy up to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has suggested her chamber will work toward a July 4 deadline.
The problem for Biden is his “American Jobs Plan” has critics on both sides.
Clean energy projects are tucked into Biden’s eight-year traditional infrastructure proposal, pitched as a way for the United States to compete against China better as he tries to placate climate change activists. Biden’s “social” infrastructure framework, set to be unveiled in mid-April, is anticipated to provide funding for free community college, universal prekindergarten, and paid family leave programs, more overtures to liberal Democrats.
On Wednesday, Biden will also lay out a companion tax reform proposal to pay for the “American Jobs Plan” over 15 years. Floated reforms include rolling back Trump’s tax cuts by raising the corporate tax rate to 28% and the global minimum tax slapped on U.S. entities to 21%. Biden’s looking, too, at nixing tax breaks for fossil fuel companies.
Republicans will balk at many of Biden’s ideas, at least according to Nebraska GOP Sen. Deb Fischer, who sits on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.
“Americans need a practical, bipartisan infrastructure bill, not a massive tax increase that will sink our economic recovery,” Fischer told the Washington Examiner.
Republican strategist Ralph Reed agreed the tax hikes will be “the major issue,” as well as Biden’s “renewable energy boondoggles and giveaways masquerading as climate change and infrastructure.”
“It’s a nonstarter for Republicans and a Trojan horse for a progressive wish list of spending,” Reed said.
Other ideas are divisive among Democrats, and Biden can’t afford to lose support in the House, where Democrats have a slim majority, or in the Senate, an evenly divided chamber Democrats only control thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote.
Progressive Change Campaign Committee membership is most excited about the resources Biden hopes to put toward creating clean energy jobs, according to Adam Green, co-founder of the Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren-aligned group.
“We expect Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ proposal to represent an ambitious use of government to help people’s economic lives, paid for by taxing the rich,” he said.
But Green’s at odds with New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has already criticized Biden’s “American Jobs Plan” for not being “nearly enough.”
This is not nearly enough. The important context here is that it’s $2.25T spread out over 10 years.
For context, the COVID package was $1.9T for this year *alone,* with some provisions lasting 2 years.
Needs to be way bigger. https://t.co/eTQ7cxuTzF
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 30, 2021
Yet, Biden’s outreach to the Left has to be balanced with entreaties to his more centrist colleagues.
Democratic Reps. Josh Gottheimer, Tom Malinowski, Bill Pascrell, and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, as well as Tom Suozzi of New York, have warned they won’t back the “American Jobs Plan” without Biden reinstating the state and local tax deduction Trump capped at $10,000. West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin has also come out against ramming the proposal through Congress using reconciliation, the budgetary procedure that only requires a simple majority for the Senate to pass a bill. Biden relied on reconciliation for his coronavirus spending package.
For University of Wisconsin, Madison Elections Research Center Director Barry Burden, the final bill text for Biden’s “American Jobs Plan” could be bipartisan, especially given the return of earmarks. Earmarks permit lawmakers to sneak funding for nonprofit projects in their states or districts into certain measures.
“Many Republican legislators will want a piece of the package to claim credit for in their districts,” Burden said. “At least for some Republican legislators, the spending is an essential part of both national security at ports and borders and economic competitiveness with China.”
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Biden’s “American Jobs Plan” includes $620 billion to improve roads, bridges, and public transit, investing in electric vehicles. Biden has allocated $580 billion to revive U.S. manufacturing and innovation through programs such as semiconductor production and mine redemption. The proposal puts $650 billion aside for enhancing housing, including through broadband internet, lead pipe replacement, and electric grid modernization. There’s another $400 billion, too, for caregivers and services for seniors and people with disabilities.
The phrase “infrastructure week” became a punchline under Trump. White House staff repeatedly drafted weeklong communications strategies to talk up the prospect of a bipartisan deal to distract from controversies such as the Russia investigation. Trump would then derail that messaging by bringing up the subjects from which he was attempting to draw attention.
