(JustPatriots.com)- White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki recently claimed that the Republicans slimmed-down infrastructure budget offer didn’t offer a solution for paying for the bill, meaning that Republicans weren’t willing to raise taxes to cover the costs. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, however, just made it clear that Republicans absolutely do demand a way to cover the costs of the bill.
On Thursday, Senator McConnell said that the massive proposed infrastructure deal should be slimmed down and fully paid for. He told journalists in Kentucky that he hopes an agreement can be made not just on the amount of money spent on the bill, but that it will be completely paid for. He said that such a plan would be welcomed by all local and state governments across the United States.
President Joe Biden and the Democrats initially put forward a $2.3 trillion package that would be paid for by increased taxes on American businesses and workers, but the Republicans came back with a much more streamlined package that allocated $568 billion to infrastructure projects alone. The White House refused to back down on funding various “green” initiatives and social policies, however, and came back with a $1.7 trillion deal instead.
It prompted the Republicans to put forward a $928 billion plan instead, with several meetings between Republican negotiator Senator Shelley Moore Capito and President Joe Biden having already taken place. The first meeting was on Wednesday, where the two met in the White House for an hour and Senator Capito reiterated the importance of pushing an infrastructure deal – not a far-left social policy deal – in a bipartisan way. She also pushed Biden to recognize the fact that the Republicans had already made some major concessions.
On Sunday, Capito said that they were close to a deal, and said that she was hopeful Biden and the Republicans could come to a bipartisan agreement.
Let’s just hope that Biden’s initial plan to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% to pay for it will be scrapped in favor of simply reopening the economy and allowing the government to recoup costs from regular taxes…
