The Scoop

McConnell Says No Republican Senators Will Back Biden’s $4T Infra Plan

By • May 5, 2021 2:18 pm

Top Republican Senator Mitch McConnell has made a very public opposition to the $4 trillion spending plan being pushed by the White House to fund infrastructure and investments in “key areas” —  saying that GOP senators will not back such proposals.

The Senate Majority Leader said he doesn’t expect any Republican senators to back Democratic President Joe Biden’s which he describes as a “grab bag.”

McConnell noted that the $4 trillion price tag for Biden’s proposal is a “non starter” for Republicans — and other Democrats are also opposed to paying such a hefty price for Biden’s wishlist on infrastructure “and other proposals with funding for  jobs training, elderly care and universal preschool.”

“If they can’t get all their ducks in a row, to use reconciliation again they’ll have to have every single Democrat in the Senate, all of them, in line, in lockstep, in order to do that. A number of them are saying they agree with us,” McConnell said in a press conference. 

“I think it’s worth talking about, but I don’t think there’ll be any Republican senators, none, zero, for the $4.1 trillion grab bag, which has infrastructure in it, but a whole lot of other stuff,” he added.

The Democratic president earlier outlined a sweeping $4 trillion infrastructure package — which includes a $2.3 trillion jobs package and a $1.8 trillion families package — with funding for roads, bridges and broadband, but also reaches to manufacturing, in-home care, housing, clean energy, and public schools, as well as allocations for initiatives being pushed by his administration.

McConnell noted that the expensive $4 trillion price tag for the plan will turn off Republicans as well as Democrats — who are backing a smaller plan directly to fund infrastructure projects such as roads and bridges.

The top GOP senator touched on the 2017 tax reform bill signed by former President Donald Trump, which lowered the corporate tax rate to 21% and noted that Republicans “are not willing to pay for it by undoing the 2017 bill.”

A group of GOP senators led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia), has earlier moved to push a $568 billion package instead and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki signalled that Biden is “absolutely” willing to negotiate with Republicans on the spending bill.

“He absolutely is, he looks forward to hearing their ideas and his objective is to find a way forward where we can modernize our nation’s infrastructure so we can compete with China,” Psaki said then. 

McConnell noted, however, that Senate Republicans were willing to go slightly higher than Capito’s proposal, but still significantly smaller than the $4 trillion plan being pushed by Biden and the Democrats.

“We’re open to doing a roughly $600 billion package which deals with what all of us would agree is infrastructure and to talk about how to pay for that in any way other than reopening the 2017 tax reform bill, which I believe — and all of my members believe — is what created, as of February 2020, the best economy in 50 years,” McConnell said.

Biden laid out his twin plan “American Families Plan” is expected to cost $1.8 trillion which includes a massive investments in education, families, expands the Child Tax Credit and creates the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, which would let families receive up to half of their child care spending as a credit on their taxes, among other items.

The “American Jobs PlanAmerican Jobs Plan” component of Biden’s proposal — meant for infrastructure — costs $2.7 trillion and reportedly covers many sectors, not just transportation infrastructure projects. 

In pushing the plan, the White House said: “This is no time to build back to the way things were. This is the moment to reimagine and rebuild a new economy. The American Jobs Plan is an investment in America that will create millions of good jobs, rebuild our country’s infrastructure, and position the United States to out-compete China.”

The Democratic administration has called for a higher corporate tax rate and increased taxes on the wealthiest Americans to cover the costs of his plan — setting the corporate tax rate at 28%, among others. 

The Daily Wire noted that Biden’s plan would push the country’s deficit further. “The Congressional Budget Office estimated Biden’s American Rescue Plan would add $1.9 trillion to the deficit over the next decade,” it said.

Meanwhile, Just the News, noted that the final version of both spending packages being pushed by the administration will likely cost ‘about $4 trillion combined’ as the country’s national debt currently sits at $28 trillion.

Steeve Strange

Steeve is the CEO & Co-Founder of The Scoop.
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