Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says President Joe Biden can expect “zero” Senate Republicans to sign on to the administration’s $4 trillion behemoth of an infrastructure package, saying it costs too much and has “a whole lot of other stuff” in it beyond its purported purpose.
What are the details?
Speaking during a news conference in Kentucky on Monday, the GOP leader said, “I think it’s worth talking about but I don’t think there will be any Republican support — none, zero — for the $4.1 trillion grab bag which has infrastructure in it but a whole lot of other stuff.”
Biden has proposed breaking up the infrastructure package into two pieces: A $2.3 trillion jobs package and a $1.8 trillion families package.
“”We’re open to doing a roughly $600 billion package which deals with what all of us agree is infrastructure,” McConnell said. “If it’s going to be about infrastructure, let’s make it about infrastructure.”
Some Senate Democrats have taken to expanding the definition of infrastructure in their bid to sell Biden’s plan to the American public, with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) declaring on Twitter that paid leave, child care, and caregiving are all “infrastructure.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have both emphasized the need to address “human infrastructure.”
The Hill reported that “a group of Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), have proposed a $568 billion package,” noting “Biden and Capito talked late last week, both expressing an interest to keep negotiating and potentially setting up another White House meeting.”
Anything else?
But Democrats and Republicans are far apart on what they are willing to spend on the package — and NBC News reported that some Democrats are losing patience, looking to move forward without a bipartisan agreement.
The outlet reported:
There is a sense of urgency among Biden and his allies, who feel they have a limited window to pass any legislation before members start focusing on the midterm elections, in which Democrats could lose one or both chambers of Congress.
If Democrats all rally behind the White House’s plan, the package could be passed through reconciliation via a simple majority in the 50-50 Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote.