Republican Floats $800 Billion Infrastructure: Stimulus Update

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- A senior Republican senator said she saw potential bipartisan support for an infrastructure package of $600 billion to $800 billion, less than half the total President Joe Biden has proposed. Two Senate Democrats appealed for a permanent enhancement of the federal unemployment benefits program to be included in the Biden plan.

Shelley Moore Capito, the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said Wednesday she favored a more traditional set of infrastructure items for a bipartisan package.

-snip-

Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the top GOP member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said she could see a bipartisan infrastructure package of $600 billion to $800 billion, that forgoes the rolling back of tax cuts on corporations and other parts of the 2017 tax law that the Biden administration has proposed.

Capito said on CNBC Tuesday that Democrats should set aside the bulk of Biden’s $2.25 trillion plan for now, arguing that they could move on other elements of the bigger proposal later on via a partisan budget reconciliation bill.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/republican-floats-800-billion-infrastructure-stimulus-update/ar-BB1fEkEJ?li=BBnbfcQ

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And there it is. Preserving their precious tax cuts for the wealthy is more important than dealing with our country's crumbling infrastructure.

[bluestarone]

1. In my eyes, i believe they are throwing a figure out there that

THEY know we cannot except!

[Phoenix61]

2. I hope he tells them to stuff it.

We need to swing for the bleachers.

[onetexan]

28. +1 -K&R

[Probatim]

3. One-third - not less than half - 1/3 of Biden's plan.

Here's a band-aid for your sucking chest wound, now quit complaining.

[The Magistrate]

4. As Ridiculous As The 600 Billion 'Covid Offer', Sir

I have been known to negotiate a price, but offer less than half the price, all you get is an invitation to leave.

I would say 1.5 trillion would be the lowest I might consider a reasonable basis for further discussion.

[FBaggins]

19. I think they're being cleverer than that

My guess is that their starting point includes all of the funding for roads/bridges/tunnels/etc. Basically, everything that they're willing to call "infrastructure" - in an attempt to defuse any claims about crumbling roads and bridges - but leaving out the things like universal pre-k or child care funding.

[The Magistrate]

21. I Do Not, Sir

They do not want anything to pass, and will vote against their own measures, if these come into the bill. The GQP wants failure, and will do anything it can to produce it. There is no point to going through the whole push-me-pull-you song and dance, like posturing drunks late in the bar.

Do what you have the votes to do, and leave these shit-heels to pound sand.

[FBaggins]

23. I don't think they want anything to pass either

Though several of them could very well vote for something like this... they won't have the opportunity.

They just want a response for "The country's roads and bridges are crumbling and republicans refuse to do anything about it!" - which will be "we proposed a bill that funds every single road and bridge their bill funds. But free housing for left-handed transgender pre-k teachers is not infrastructure!"

Do what you have the votes to do, and leave these shit-heels to pound sand.

Indeed. The problem is that "what you have the votes to do" appears to be "nothing" without a few of them.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

5. REC for the federal unemployment benefits program from Senate Dems. n/t

[ProudMNDemocrat]

6. The rich can afford it.

The GOP do not understand that the rich corporations are USERS of infrastructure as well , more so . They have passed on higher costs regardless of where wages are because they can to maximize their profits WITHOUT paying Taxes. Time for that to end.

[left-of-center2012]

7. "to include items like roads, bridges, ports, airports and broadband"

Nothing for Amtrak or high speed rail?

That's something I'd like to see,
having traveled by train cross-country, and between New England & Florida a number of times.

[Thomas Hurt]

8. Christofascists seem to believe that you use infrastructure to catastrophic failure...

once people have died it is okay to replace it, preferably by some private company that will then profit from it.

[Bayard]

9. Um...... let me think about that a minute.

NO!

Not even a down payment. And if that was accepted, we'd never see the rest of it.

[bluescribbler]

11. And, if it were accepted,

they still wouldn't vote for it.

[zeusdogmom]

27. Sad but true

[AZLD4Candidate]

10. Second time they propose less than half the amount the Democrats propose

The "Halfway Party" strikes again.

Bipartisanship GOP Style - we propose, you accept. You propose, we obstruct.

[Historic NY]

12. Same bullshit they did with Obama's stimilus

go big or go home.

[ancianita]

13. She's Manchin's proxy, who's into convincing WVirginians that wealthy tax cuts are good for them.

Both trying to present the Republicans as reasonable. They're simply reactionary. They want to cut what they wouldn't pass, and after we've done the research, budgeting and planning, get credit for passing our work.

Fuck them. Pass the whole damn thing on 51 votes. We could get one retiring Republican's vote if we don't have Manchin.

[WinstonSmith4740]

14. Been there, done that.

Besides having absolutely no heart or brain cells left after 5 years of sucking up to the former guy, rethugs must think that nobody else has a memory left. This has been their MO for years...hold out the promise of a few Republican votes so they can claim "bipartisan support", water down the bill until it is useless, and then don't vote for it anyway. Susan Collins is a master of this. She played this game with Reid all the time. She went back and forth with him on a bill to benefit vets (I think) and then voted against it because "He took too much time".

[ancianita]

15. The Confidence game of cons.

[forthemiddle]

16. Biden said that he planned to split up the original bill

I think maybe they should take this deal, pass this part of the bill, and then do his other parts under reconciliation.
If this part is bipartisan, they wouldn’t need to use the reconciliation to do this, and he could then pass a huge infrastructure bill, and use this as a huge win in his first 100 days.
It doesn’t need to be the last infrastructure bill, but talking points of a bipartisan bill are always good.

[ancianita]

17. Maybe then if they don't pass it like they say, he just adds it to the next reconciliation bill?

How many times do we have to play along so that we get their bad faith integrity "on the record," when their voters really don't gaf. They really don't.

[marble falls]

18. Screw them. Let's do this right. Joe Biden/Kamala Harris' plan is the bare minimum.

[Fullduplexxx]

20. This is what they do they water these bills down over and over thenn th

No republican will vote for dor it

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

22. This is a counter-proposal. It's part of the two-party bargaining process.

Maybe all parties can sit down, negotiate, come up with a number that can pass out of committee on a bi-partisan basis.

And then not one Republican will vote for it. But time will have passed, so that's sort of a R victory.

Agree, the Repugs will not roll back any of the 2017 tax cuts.

[Botany]

24. They know that Joe's infrastructure will work and be popular so they want to stop it.

If we had a media who really reported on what rat bastard weasels those shits are they
would lose in a landslide.

[oasis]

29. Exactly. I agree with every word. nt

[essaynnc]

25. Give us what we want now.....

the watered down version, and we PROMISE that we'll support the other stuff in the future. So the lst paragraph says.....

That is a damn lie. They've been doing that crap for years. The answer is....no.

[greenjar_01]

26. Biden made his plan 1/3 larger than could be passed

Which is good negotiating. He put a lot of things in there that are marginally infrastructure. The GOP pointed to that, but now they're on the hook for the stuff that is obviously infrastructure, at least. This is all good negotiating. The infrastructure bill will come in somewhere in between $2.25 trillion and $800 billion. Believe it or not, a lot of GOPers want to pass an infrastructure bill as well, and may even be relieved that the era of Give Nothing is over. People actually do want to legislate, and everybody recognizes that infrastructure is necessary.

[ashredux]

30. Simply put....Fuck You and the horse you rode in on

[bringthePaine]

31. stick the whole thing right up their infrastructure!

[rickyhall]

32. Now they want to insult us? POTUS should have suggested more.

[monkeyman1]

33. step aside republican's - let the smart people handle this ! don't have time to golf !!!