GQP - Don't Raise Taxes On The (Blue State) Wealthiest; Tax People Who Drive A Lot (In Red States)

[hatrack]

This, in the end, is what it's come down to. Surreal.

EDIT

If you’ve watched a Republican campaign ad or read a conservative pundit at any point in the last four years (and/or four decades), you’ve heard some iteration of this message. Anti-metropolitan populism is as ubiquitous in GOP rhetoric as salt is on French fries. In fact, Republicans are so unabashed in their rural chauvinism that they routinely argue that America’s political institutions should not give equal representation to people who live in cities. Just last year, Tom Cotton argued that Washington, D.C., does not deserve Senate representation because, while it may be more populous than Wyoming, “Wyoming is a well-rounded working-class state,” while D.C. is a city of “bureaucrats and other white-collar professionals.”

All of which makes the current sticking point in negotiations between Democrats and Republicans on infrastructure a bit remarkable: While Joe Biden would like to finance new infrastructure by raising taxes on wealthy corporate shareholders (who disproportionately live in large coastal cities), moderate Republicans are demanding that he “pay for” new roads and bridges by raising taxes on Americans who drive a lot (who disproportionately live in rural areas).

Republican senators Shelley Moore Capito and Mitt Romney said this week that they are working with eight of their GOP colleagues on a counteroffer to Biden’s $2.25 trillion American Jobs Plan. According to Capito, the Republican proposal will depart from Biden’s in three main ways: It will narrowly focus on physical infrastructure (whereas Biden’s plan includes investments in green technology and eldercare), it will cost between $600 billion and $800 billion, and it will be financed through “user fees” — which is to say, a gas tax and “vehicle miles traveled” (VMT) tax. For his part, Romney told Politico Wednesday that $800 billion sounded “a little high.” But he seconded Capito’s commitment to user fees, which Mississippi senator Roger Wicker has also endorsed.

The GOP’s commitment to soaking its own base is more of a deal-breaker than the party’s call for a slimmer package. After all, Democrats still have two more reconciliation bills in their quiver, and Biden already planned to enact his “Build Back Better” agenda in two parts. So, the president could simply pass a conventional infrastructure-only bill with Republican support, then get the rest of the American Jobs Plan into law through future legislation. By contrast, approving a gas-tax hike would require Biden to violate a campaign promise: In 2020, the president vowed that he would not raise taxes on the middle class. On Tuesday, Biden formally ruled out that possibility in talks with moderate Republicans.

EDIT

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/04/biden-infrastructure-senate-republicans-gas-tax.html

[Grins]

1. Taxes on who?

“In 2020, the president vowed that he would not raise taxes on the middle class.”

And he’s not. From the article, Republicans Romney and Capito are proposing that. If the Reich tries to use that against Biden he will beat the “No taxes” crowd senseless.