President Joe Biden told a bipartisan group of lawmakers Monday the United States must pass a massive infrastructure bill to revive its declining rank in the world hierarchy.
“He thinks, and he says that we’re a declining superpower, the United States is no longer No. 1,” Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, said after the meeting with Biden.
Biden met with a group of eight lawmakers from both parties to discuss his $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal, which also calls for a significant corporate tax increase to offset some of the cost. The plan calls for spending $200 billion for research and development initiatives.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat who participated in the event, said Biden stressed the infrastructure plan must be significant.
“His main point was, like, ‘We’re not going to go small, we’re going to get this right,’” said Cantwell, who chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Wicker said he does not agree with Biden about either the size of the infrastructure plan, the tax increases, or Biden’s view that the U.S. is on the decline.
“But he says that our allies and our adversaries tell us that,” Wicker said. “That they view the United States as [a] declining power. And so, he thinks this infrastructure package has to be massive and all-encompassing, including quantum physics technology.”
Wicker said Biden met with lawmakers for an hour and 40 minutes and had “a very lively discussion.” Biden did most of the talking and was “highly engaged,” Wicker said.
Vice President Kamala Harris was also at the meeting.
Biden said he is interested in crafting a bipartisan infrastructure deal, but Wicker echoed fellow Republicans in rejecting Biden’s plan to hike the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, eliminating part of the signature GOP tax cuts from 2017.
“It would be an almost impossible sell from the president to come to a bipartisan agreement that included the undoing of that signature,” Wicker told reporters Monday after the meeting. “And I did tell him that.”
Biden has pledged to negotiate with Republicans.
He plans more bipartisan meetings next week, Wicker said.
Republicans stressed existing programs and revenue that could be broadened to address some infrastructure needs, such as expanding broadband and improving railroads.
“I’m going to operate under the assumption that they want a bipartisan bill,” Wicker said. “I’m not gonna try to dig any deeper than that. The president spent an hour and 40 minutes talking to eight members of Congress from the newest freshman senator to the dean of the House and folks like us in between, with some pretty good back and forth.”
