President Biden’s economic agenda dominated the Sunday morning political talk shows.
Aides to the president signaled that he is open to negotiations with Republicans, while GOP senators pushed back on the legislation for reasons ranging from provisions not traditionally considered infrastructure to a proposed increase on corporate taxes.
President Biden wants to advance an infrastructure bill in a bipartisan way “if possible,” a top White House adviser said Sunday, indicating Biden’s preference to work with Republicans on a package but not ruling out moving ahead without them.
“President Biden has been clear that he knows this is a negotiation, that he knows that a negotiation requires compromise at some point and that he wants to move this package forward in a bipartisan way if that is possible,” White House senior adviser Anita Dunn said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“We are looking forward to having discussions. We are open to people’s ideas. This is discussion time and idea time for the White House,” she continued.
The chair of President Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers, Cecilia Rouse, defended the administration’s planned $2 trillion infrastructure package as a necessary investment for growth amid a historic recession.
“Well, I’m not going to speak for what [President Biden] will do in a negotiation, but he has made clear that he believes permanent increases in spending should be paid for, and I agree,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said Sunday that Republicans and Democrats remain “far apart” on infrastructure reform, adding that Democrats are insisting on using billions of dollars to support unions and other organizations aligned with the party’s causes as part of the legislation.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said on Sunday his biggest sticking point when it comes to President Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan was “trillions and trillions of dollars of reckless spending.”
Moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) said on Sunday that she would not support the proposed 28 percent corporate tax rate in President Biden’s $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan, saying jobs would be lost.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said Sunday that it was not “typically” the responsibility of the federal government to provide pre-kindergarten or community college access to Americans, while leaving open the possibility of compromise around “incentives” for such issues.
“One of the reasons why I’m hopeful is because in a way this time my friends on the left aren’t looking for the issue, they’re looking for a solution,” GOP Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) said. “And the things that I offered last year are more popular this year. That gives me reasons to be hopeful.”
“Listen, this whole thing is ludicrous, quite frankly, it’s ludicrous. And this also comes from a state party in Arizona that refused to be audited themselves on votes that were cast within their own party communications,” Cindy McCain said.
“Unfortunately, that report is untrue. There is no agreement to release these four Americans. We are working very hard to get them released, we raise this with Iran and our interlocutors all the time, but so far there’s no agreement to bring these four Americans home,” White House chief of staff Ron Klain said.
