Infrastructure may be President Joe Biden’s last, best chance to strike a major bipartisan deal this term. Some liberals think he would be a fool to take it.
Biden has the opportunity to succeed where former President Donald Trump failed in making “infrastructure week” a reality rather than a beltway punchline and has been meeting with leading congressional Republicans to make this his big bipartisan breakthrough. The White House has repeatedly signaled it is willing to negotiate on this issue.
“There’s more time to move forward,” press secretary Jen Psaki said of the administration’s willingness to deal. “There’s more time to discuss and negotiate. And we’ll take advantage of that — that time available.”
How much time is a matter of some debate within Democratic circles. A bill would likely have to pass this year, as next year, attention will shift to the midterm elections, when Republicans will try to whittle away at narrow Democratic majorities and seize control of Congress. After that, the next presidential campaign cycle will begin in earnest.
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Biden has said he plans to run for reelection in 2024, but he will be 81 years old. At 78, he is already the oldest sitting president in history. Lame-duck whispers will not help him pass additional legislation.
While the clock may be ticking on getting a significant bipartisan win, liberals are worried about a different time horizon.
“We write to you once again to urge you to seize this critical window of opportunity to pass bold jobs and economic investment legislation that responds to the interwoven crises facing this country,” wrote the leaders of a dozen liberal groups, including key Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton adviser John Podesta of the Center for American Progress, in a letter to Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“We need immediate action that will build a more just, equitable, clean, and more prosperous economy,” they wrote. And while they don’t criticize Republicans by name, they express concern about these initiatives becoming diluted and precious time being expended in negotiations. “Specifically, we urge you to swiftly pass legislation that invests at least $4 trillion throughout the economy over this presidential term, bound by high-road labor, equity and climate standards,” the liberals continued.
The Senate Republicans’ counteroffer on infrastructure was a $568 billion package. Biden has proposed nearly $2.25 trillion, specifically under the rubric of infrastructure, though Republicans have criticized his definition of the term as being too broad, followed by another $1.8 trillion for child care and other social welfare spending.
There is the theory among some Democrats that seeking Republican input will make centrists in their own party more likely to support an infrastructure bill eventually. The lead Republican negotiator is Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who represents West Virginia alongside centrist Democrat Joe Manchin, the most frequent holdout on liberal legislation in the president’s party.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has suggested an infrastructure package should cost no more than $800 billion, up from $600 billion earlier this month, and the tax increases Biden wants to pay for it are the GOP’s “red line.”
Biden’s dilemma is whether to go big and bold on infrastructure or to negotiate a bill that can pass with strong bipartisan majorities, including 60 votes in the Senate, and pass separate legislation including other Democratic priorities that can’t get Republican support.
“I would say big and bold,” said Democratic strategist Stefan Hankin. “Right now, we only have one functioning party in this country, and until the more moderate Republican senators break away from the disaster that is the Republican Party, Biden would not be negotiating with a party that is governing in good faith. It’s time to move on and get things done.”
On the $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan,” this was the path Biden ultimately chose. He met at the White House with a group of Republican senators pushing a smaller plan. But he told them he did not want a lower price tag or to take longer getting the money out the door, and the bill passed Congress exclusively with Democratic votes.
This tension was also at the heart of Biden’s campaign appeal last year. The president ran both as a consummate Washington deal-maker with decades of Senate experience, a pitch that won over suburban voters in key battleground states, and someone who could deliver on a liberal agenda, wooing Bernie Sanders voters who had declined to pull the lever for Clinton in 2016.
“I think it’s important to always start from a place of bipartisanship — and it’s Biden’s nature. He’s got more of a shot of making something happen across the aisle than any other Democrat,” said Democratic strategist Jessica Tarlov. “But I have no problem going party-line vote if that’s what it takes. It’s the American public’s view that matters most. Satisfying the majority of Americans is the barometer for what bipartisanship is today when politics is so polarized.”
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Biden has also argued that some of his ideas on infrastructure and the economy poll better among Republican voters than they do among GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill, a sign of bipartisanship outside the beltway. But even an Associated Press/NORC poll that gave Biden a 63% approval rating overall, about 10 points higher than in the previous national polling averages, and 57% approval on the economy showed only 19% of Republicans favoring his economic stewardship.
In his address to a joint session of Congress, Biden hinted that he would only go the bipartisan route for so long. “We welcome ideas. But the rest of the world isn’t waiting for us,” he said. “Doing nothing is not an option.” Some of Biden’s supporters are less patient. “Those who argue for small-minded measures are on the wrong side of history,” Podesta and the liberal leaders wrote.
