Buttigieg: Biden Wants Congress to Act on Infrastructure Before Memorial Day


Pete Buttigieg: 8-Year Spending Plan ‘Fully Paid for Across 15 Years of Tax Adjustment’

(04-04-2021 01:29 PM)200yrs2late Wrote:  

(04-02-2021 10:38 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(04-02-2021 10:17 AM)vandiver49 Wrote:  

(04-01-2021 10:16 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(03-30-2021 02:58 PM)bearcat65 Wrote:  Highway improvement yes but high speed rail has for the most part failed whenever attempted in the US.

Where in the US do we currently have high speed rail? The only thing that comes close is Amtrak's Acela Express that covers like 1 route through several cities, but that's only considered higher-speed rail and only covers a few areas with that higher speed.

Hard to say it has failed when we've never actually built it.

A nationwide HSR system would be pointless as it would be slower than flying and magnitudes more expensive. Just look at the California High Speed Rail construction and its inflated costs.

While all that may be true, my only point is that we don't have any high-speed rail nor have we really tried to implement one outside of CA and the higher speed rail from Amtrak on the East coast. So you really can't say we've tried it and its failed.

That covers what, 70% of the US population and metro areas? I'd say that qualifies as trying it.

Sent from my SM-A516U using Tapatalk

at least he got 'taxpayers got fk'd up the arse correct'

like tiger, that ol' boy toy knows how to dick himself proper-like...

(04-01-2021 10:16 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  While all that may be true, my only point is that we don't have any high-speed rail nor have we really tried to implement one outside of CA and the higher speed rail from Amtrak on the East coast. So you really can't say we've tried it and it's failed.

None of those have been what should properly be called high speed rail. When Europe and Japan have high speed rail doing 130-160 mph, with cabins more nicely appointed than first class air, while we do well to average over 70 in decrepit cars, no we haven't really tried high speed rail.

Comparing USA "high speed rail" to a Eurostar or Shinkansen is like comparing hitchhiking to space travel.

(04-02-2021 12:52 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(04-02-2021 12:42 PM)Redwingtom Wrote:  And his tax cut that was passed in his first year in office blew a gaping hole in the debt and deficit.

The gaping hole was blown into it by the legacy programs handed to him by Obama, I can provide proof if you like.

The impact of Trump's tax cuts was minor compared to that.

It's remarkable how Tom and other liberals ignore this every time it's brought up.

(04-05-2021 08:18 AM)bearcat65 Wrote:  

(04-02-2021 12:52 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(04-02-2021 12:42 PM)Redwingtom Wrote:  And his tax cut that was passed in his first year in office blew a gaping hole in the debt and deficit.

The gaping hole was blown into it by the legacy programs handed to him by Obama, I can provide proof if you like.
The impact of Trump's tax cuts was minor compared to that.

It's remarkable how Tom and other liberals ignore this every time it's brought up.

In large part because republicans have never adequately pointed this out.

Quote:President Joe Biden defended his definition of infrastructure during a speech at the White House on Wednesday on his proposed $2.5 trillion infrastructure plan.

“The idea of infrastructure has always evolved to meet the aspirations of the American people and their needs,” Biden said. “And it is evolving again today.”

Biden defied Republican criticism that his bill did not spend enough on roads, bridges, airports, and ports, and too much on “Green New Deal” priorities.

“That’s just not rational, it really isn’t,” Biden said defiantly.

Only about 25 percent of Biden’s proposed $2.5 trillion plan actually funds basic infrastructure, including roads, bridges, airports, and ports as well as rail projects, replacing lead pipes and water systems, electric transmission systems, and the expansion of broadband internet.

But Biden defended proposed spending on climate change initiatives including electric vehicles and charging stations, electric school busses and federal vehicles, and clean energy technology.

He argued the natural disasters destroying homes and businesses were a consequence of climate change, which had to be addressed in future spending plans.

Biden urged Americans to dream of a time when their children could travel on high-speed rail as fast as an airplane or traveling across the country on a single tank of gas.

“That’s why I brought scientists back into the White House,” he said.

He warned China and other countries in the world were investing heavily into research and development, and that America had to do the same.

China, he argued, was “counting on American Democracy to be too slow, too limited, and too divided to keep pace” with them.

Biden said he would be willing to negotiate with Republicans on the details of his plan, but wanted to do something.

“We will not be open to doing nothing. Inaction is simply not an option,” Biden said.

He also said he wanted to pay for the massive spending plan with higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

“I’m not trying to punish anybody but dammit, maybe it’s because I come from a middle-class neighborhood, I’m sick and tired of ordinary people getting fleeced,” he said.

Biden acknowledged he was willing to negotiate the corporate tax rate, which he wanted to raise from 21 percent to 28 percent.

“I’m willing to listen to that,” he told reporters after his speech.

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Quote:Comment|Print| A A
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand D-N.Y., kicked off a firestorm Wednesday, when she tweeted out, in light of President Biden's current infrastructure plan, that "Paid leave is infrastructure. Child care is infrastructure. Caregiving is infrastructure."

The tweet incurred a backlash from conservatives across the internet. Conservative pundit Ben Shapiro replied with an absurdist approach, "Unicorns are infrastructure. Love is infrastructure. Herpes is infrastructure. Everything is infrastructure."

Ben Domenech, publisher of The Federalist, replied, "Brunch is infrastructure. Kendall Jenner is infrastructure. The Snyder Cut is infrastructure."


Others, from the likes of Donald Trump Jr. to Illinois Rep. Mary Miller, continued to lambast the senator's tweet.

Rep. Miller tweeted: "Border walls are actually infrastructure."

Donald Trump Jr. tweeted: "I don't think any of those things are infrastructure, but you know what is??? THE WALL"

Even Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted out with a response of similar ilk pointing to absurdism.

"Abortion is infrastructure. Gun control is infrastructure. Forced unionization is infrastructure. Whatever the Left wants is infrastructure. You know what's not? Roads & bridges. ONLY 5% OF BIDEN's 'INFRASTRUCTURE' BILL IS ROADS & BRIDGES."

But it wasn't just conservatives who came out in response to Gillibrand's tweet. Former MSNBC host and liberal commentator Keith Olbermann mentioned the senator's use of the word 'infrastructure' was devaluing language.

"No, Senator. These are all vital needs. I would argue they are as important as nuts and bolts and grids and networks. But when you drain a word of it's meaning, you damage its impact, your cause, and the value of language."

Evolutionary behavioral scientist Gad Saad, had this to say:

"Exactly. Violent crime is climate change. Open borders is climate change. Defund the police is climate change. People menstruate is climate change. Voting fraud is climate change. [I'll retweet.]"

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, made an allusion to defending Sen. Gillibrand's position in a separate tweet.

"There was a time when railroads weren't considered "infrastructure." Then we built them. Now's the time to build the 21st century economy Americans need. #AmericanJobsPlan"

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Quote:House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that President Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure package was not only about traditional infrastructure because it addressed “human infrastructure” such as childcare, housing, and education.

Partial transcript as follows:

MARGARET BRENNAN, HOST CBS’s “FACE THE NATION”: Well, on the specifics of how the president wants to see the economy grow with this two and a quarter trillion dollar package, he’s asking, you have a Democratic majority. It’s a slim one here. You can only really afford to lose about two Democrats. What are you going to do? What concrete proposals can you offer to get Republicans on board with this jobs and infrastructure package?

PELOSI: Well, you’ve heard me say again and again, public sentiment is everything. Lincoln said that. The public understands that the worst and most expensive maintenance is no maintenance. And we have to maintain our roads, our bridges, our mass transit. We have to upgrade our water systems. We have to build out our- our broadband for distance learning and telemedicine and the rest of that. So we have a big responsibility. We have a big need to the tune of trillions of dollars, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. This is a very important piece of–

BRENNAN: Well, what you just is what you just laid out there does have Republican support. It’s the rest of the package that Republicans are largely objecting to. Can you trim this down to focus on just the portions–

PELOSI: No.

BRENNAN: –you outlined there, the roads, the bridges, the waterways?

PELOSI: Well, no, because infrastructure is- it’s about education, about getting children healthily in school with separation, sanitation, ventilation. It’s about investments in housing as well. Overwhelmingly, this bill is about infrastructure in the traditional sense of the word. We also think that infrastructure- there’s a need for workforce development in order to have the workforce fully participate in how we go forward and childcare so that women can be involved in that as well. So it’s physical infrastructure. It’s also human infrastructure that is involved. And the figure that they use is a ridiculous one to say that it’s just a small percentage of the bill. It is overwhelmingly what the legislation is about. And some newer versions of why- how we build the infrastructure in a way that takes building back better means we’re all going down the path together.

BRENNAN: Well, as we talked about there, you have a slim majority. So to keep the progressives in your party happy, they are pushing you to actually make it bigger, not to slim it down. They’re pushing you as well on paid family and medical leave. I know you continue to say you are committed to making those things permanent,–

PELOSI: Yeah.

BRENNAN: –but that’s not in these White House proposals.

PELOSI: Well no.

BRENNAN: When do you plan to put those things in a bill to make those permanent?

PELOSI: Well, the president has talked about additional legislation, our families bill, that would come next and have issues that relate to lowering the cost of prescription drugs by having a- a negotiation for lower prices about family and medical leave being made permanent. And of course, I want to make the child tax credit permanent as well.–

BRENNAN: When?

PELOSI: But those in a matter of conversation as we go forward, I have no doubt that we will have a great bill in the House. I hope that it will be bipartisan. I’ve been in Congress long enough to remember when bipartisanship was not unusual and that actually growing- building infrastructure has never been a partisan issue. They would only make it- they made it partisan under President Obama by shrinking the bill. Hopefully the need is so obvious now that Republicans will vote for it. We’ll see. The door is open. Our hand is extended. Let’s find out where we can find our common ground. We always have a responsibility to strive for bipartisanship.

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Quote:Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Sunday said there’s “so much” for states that have been mining fossil fuels “to love” in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan.

In an interview on ABC News’ “This Week,” Granholm said the president is willing to compromise with Republicans on the $2.3 trillion package.

“So much of this package will help not just West Virginia, but the states like West Virginia that have been historically mining fossil fuels, extracting fossil fuels,” she said. “Republicans and Democrats agree on the importance of not leaving communities behind where the market has moved in a different direction like in coal.”

“This will help to train people who are in that industry to move to these new technologies that are not a whole lot different from the skills that they may be using in mining coal,” she said, adding, “There's a lot in there that helps these states move to the future in addition to roads and bridges and in rural states, broadband, and transmission. So much in here to love.”

According to Granholm, Biden is “willing to negotiate what this looks like.”

“He knows that his current plan is going to be changed,” she said. “That's the nature of compromise. So whether it is in one big package or several packages, he wants to talk to Republicans.”

“The president wants to give it the time necessary to see if he can achieve that bipartisan support,” she added. “Hopefully there will be progress by Memorial Day. I know that he wants to get this done by summer. … not doing something is not an option.”

“We need to make these investments,” she declared. “We need to make the investments at the size of the need for America to win, and so that's what this is about.”

With Republicans signaling united opposition to Biden's proposal, Democrats need near-universal party support to pass infrastructure and jobs legislation.

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Quote:Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg declined Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” to rule out adding a path to citizenship for DREAMers to President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure package.

Anchor Jake Tapper said, “House progressives are calling you to include a path to citizenship for DREAMers in the legislation. Again, I understand this is a principle you think that is worth fighting for. Is that infrastructure?”

Buttigieg said, “That’s not in the plan that we have put forward. Of course, we need to support DREAMers. That’s important as a policy matter in this country. Now, we’re getting into the season where there is going to be a lot of push and pull on. You know how things move in different forms in terms of legislative packaging. That’s what this negotiating process will produce. But the important thing, as the president has repeatedly said, is we can’t do nothing. We can’t wait any longer, and when it comes to this infrastructure package, The American people are ready to go. We have been ready to go for years and years. I think this is the third administration to arrive with the American people clamoring for something to happen on infrastructure. I think this time we can get it done.”

Tapper pressed, “Are you ruling out including a path for citizenship for DREAMers in the infrastructure bill?”

Buttigieg said, “Again, that’s not in the plan that the president has put forward. I will say that we’re hearing a lot of ideas from across the aisle and within our caucus on you know what to do about the pay-fors, different shapes that the infrastructure package and the transportation infrastructure can take. I think you will find the president is ready to listen to these ideas that are going to come up, for example, in tomorrow’s meeting. But we can’t just sit here. We’ve got roads and bridges deteriorating by the day. America is not in the top 10 when it comes to transportation infrastructure — areas that I work on the most. We got to get something done.”

Tapper said, “So I’ll interpret that as your mind is opened as to what else might be in the package.”

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Kennedy: Biden Infrastructure Plan ‘Has More Red Flags Than the Chinese Embassy’


White House Issuing Reports on States' Infrastructure Needs


White House Targets GOP Leaders' Home States in Infrastructure Push


Feelings Get Hurt After Chris Christie Drops Inconvenient Truths About Biden's Infrastructure Plan

Quote:Senate Republicans panned President Biden’s infrastructure package as a “dog’s breakfast” of wasteful spending and voiced skepticism about the White House’s efforts to win bipartisan support for the massive $2.3 trillion plan.

The president said Monday that he wants to move forward with members of both parties, but congressional Democrats already are making moves to again go it alone.

Mr. Biden said at the beginning of a nearly two-hour meeting with lawmakers that he’s not simply going through the motions on his Republican outreach and that he’s willing to compromise.

“I’m confident everything is going to work out perfectly,” he said to some laughter from the crowd in the Oval Office. “It’s going to get down to what we call infrastructure. … I think broadband is infrastructure. It’s not just roads, bridges, highways, etc.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled later Monday afternoon that Republicans will resist what he called the White House’s “motley assortment of the left’s priciest priorities.”

“Less than 6% of this proposal goes to roads and bridges,” the Kentucky Republican said. “It’s not remotely targeted toward what Americans think they are getting when politicians campaign on infrastructure. But instead of coming up with a better bill, Democrats have decided it’s the English language that has to change.”

Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican who met with Mr. Biden Monday, said afterward that there is significant space between the two sides despite some areas of agreement on roads, bridges, ports, airports, rail and broadband.

“Clearly there are parts of his program that are non-starters for Republicans,” said Mr. Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. “It was a good meeting — whether we’ll be able to come to a bipartisan agreement that gets as expansive and as massive as he would like to, I don’t know.”

Mr. Wicker said it would be “almost impossible” for Mr. Biden to convince the GOP to roll back major parts of the 2017 tax law, which slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and cut individual income tax rates across the board.

Republicans say that raising the U.S. corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, which Mr. Biden has proposed to pay for part of the new spending, would kill jobs at a time when the economy is starting to show signs of recovery from the coronavirus-related lockdowns.

“I think his main point was we’re not going to go small — we’re going to get this right,” Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, who is chairwoman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said of Mr. Biden.

The other Republicans slated to be in the meeting were Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana and Rep. Don Young of Alaska.

The other Democrats on the guest list were Sen. Alex Padilla of California, Rep. Donald M. Payne Jr. of New Jersey and Rep. David Price of North Carolina.

Senate Republicans said in a memo issued before the meeting that they can’t abide Mr. Biden’s expansive use of the term “infrastructure,” which he used to make a pitch in a separate meeting on Monday to boost supply chains of semiconductor chips amid a major shortage.

Much of the infrastructure package is “a dog’s breakfast of slush funds for Democrats’ pet projects without any accountability or transparency,” said the memo from the Senate Republican Conference.

Republicans have pointed to line items such as $10 billion for a “Civilian Climate Corps” and $400 billion for caregiving for the elderly as items that have nothing to do with fixing roads and bridges.

The spending side of Mr. Biden’s infrastructure plan also includes $620 billion for transportation infrastructure, $650 billion for universal broadband, clean water, upgrades to the electric grid and affordable housing, and $580 billion for research and development, manufacturing and training.

Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin said that some pieces of the package might have to pass separately but that Democrats aren’t going to stand for Republican counter-proposals they think are too small.

“When [Sen.] Roy Blunt says the answer is, do a third of what the president wants, that doesn’t cut it with me,” said Mr. Durbin, Illinois Democrat.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s office indicated that Senate rules could give Democrats at least two more chances this year to leverage a fast-track budget tool to pass legislation without GOP support.

Congressional Democrats used the process, known as reconciliation, to muscle through Mr. Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package without GOP votes, sidestepping the typical 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate, which is split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote gives Democrats effective control of the chamber.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernard Sanders of Vermont said people don’t care about the process if lawmakers deliver results.

“Among other things, they want to create millions of good-paying jobs rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, dealing with climate change,” said Mr. Sanders, a democratic socialist who caucuses with Democrats. “We have got to look at all possible approaches and get it done. But the most important thing is, get it done.”

He wants to add provisions to expand Medicare as part of Mr. Biden’s spending plans, an addition that would essentially doom any hope of winning Republican support.

“If I have anything to say about it, it will be [included],” he said.

Major business groups said that while the U.S. does need to spend money on infrastructure, the projects shouldn’t be paid for with tax hikes.

A Business Roundtable survey released Monday found that 98% of CEOs said an increase in the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% would have a “moderately” to “very” significant adverse effect on their company’s competitiveness.

Mr. Biden has signaled he’s open to negotiating on the corporate tax rate, and Democrats likely don’t have 50 votes to pass a 28% rate. Sen. Joe Manchin III, West Virginia Democrat, has suggested a 25% rate.

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