Another Republican President, Another Recession.

The White House on Friday rejected a new counteroffer from Senate Republicans on funding for infrastructure reform, saying the party’s latest proposal — which included an additional $50 billion in spending — marked a welcome move, but one that still falls far short of what President Biden is seeking.

With billions of dollars still separating the two sides, the exchange capped off a week of tense negotiations that increasingly has left Democratic and GOP lawmakers unsure if they’re going to be able to broker a bipartisan deal to improve the nation’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections.

In total, Republicans now appear to have offered to spend nearly $980 billion on infrastructure. More than $300 billion of that amount appears to represent new federal investments, with the rest of the proposal reflecting existing or expected spending as part of regular congressional efforts to fund improvements in water and transportation.

Biden has signaled during negotiations he is open to slimming down his package, known as the American Jobs Plan, to about $1 trillion from its initial $2.3 trillion price tag. But the president has also maintained that infrastructure spending should include entirely new investments — meaning that the gap between Democrats and Republicans is more vast than it appears.

Biden offers tax concession in infrastructure talks with key Republican

White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed the details of the GOP’s latest counteroffer on Friday in a statement after Biden spoke by phone with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). “The president expressed his gratitude for her effort and goodwill, but also indicated that the current offer did not meet his objectives to grow the economy, tackle the climate crisis and create new jobs,” she said.

Capito’s office confirmed the call in its own statement, but declined to provide further details.

Both sides said they planned to resume talks on Monday, with Congress set to return after its latest recess. And Psaki signaled the White House could soon broaden its conversations further to other burgeoning efforts in the Senate to craft a bipartisan infrastructure deal.

Time could be running out for infrastructure deal

The overall price tag of an infrastructure package represents only one of the many disagreements still separating Democrats and Republicans over new public-works spending. The two sides still cannot come to terms on what infrastructure fully entails, much less how the U.S. government should finance the investments.

Both sides have sought to make some concessions — with the GOP raising the initial cost of its plan and the White House signaling privately it is willing to put aside some of its most controversial tax increases if only for the moment. But the entreaties have hardly bridged the massive political divide, prompting top White House aides to emphasize in recent days that the clock is ticking.

Psaki earlier Friday declined to set a deadline or specify that the talks are at their end. “There’s runway left,” she said at her news briefing, even though she said there are some “realities of timelines.”

That includes ongoing work in the House and Senate to reauthorize a series of key federal transportation programs, an effort long seen as a potential vehicle for a broader infrastructure deal. Earlier in the day, Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.), the leader of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, released his $547 billion plan to fund the nation’s roads and railways. The panel is set to begin considering the measure next week.

DeFazio, who also spoke with Biden on Friday, said in an interview that his proposal incorporates “many of the new and novel programs and objectives” that Biden sketched out in his jobs plan, including the president’s desire to couple new transportation spending with efforts to combat climate change. He said he felt it was important for infrastructure reform to proceed in essentially two tracks, adding: “I think it is essential that the president continues to engage meaningfully with the Senate.”

But Biden’s talks have begun to trouble some Democrats, who in recent days have urged the White House to hold firm on its infrastructure ambitions — and seize on its narrow but potent majorities in Congress to see it through to passage.

“Hmm. When the GOP passed legislation to provide a $1 trillion tax break to corporations & the 1% without a single Democratic vote, I didn’t hear my Republican colleagues say ‘Wait. It has to be bipartisan,’ ” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted on Friday. “Please don’t tell me we can’t use the same tools to help working people.”

“If what I’m reading is true, I would have a very hard time voting yes on this bill,” said Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, adding in a tweet that the $2 trillion package Biden initially put forward “was already the compromise.” “@POTUS can’t expect us to vote for an infrastructure deal dictated by the Republican party,” he added.

Click to expand...

The wealthiest Americans — including Warren Buffett, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos — paid little in federal income taxes at times in recent years, despite soaring fortunes, according to Internal Revenue Service data obtained by ProPublica.

The tax information published Tuesday shows how billionaires are able to legally reduce their tax burden, highlighting how in some cases the American tax system hits ordinary wage-earners harder than the richest people in the country, ProPublica said. The bombshell report comes after President Biden and other Democrats have complained the U.S. tax system is unfair and tilted to benefit corporations and the wealthy.

ProPublica analyzed the data by focusing on the soaring fortunes of the country’s wealthiest members in recent years and alleged they were paying a “true tax rate” of just 3.4 percent. The news organization came up with this rate by calculating estimates of the value of their stock portfolios and other assets and then how much they paid in federal income taxes.

The publication of information from these personal income tax forms comes as the Biden administration pushes to raise income taxes on the country’s top wage-earners. But ProPublica’s data shows how taxing income would have little effect on the richest Americans, whose wealth is mostly held as assets.

Biden tax plans make some Democrats nervous.

The U.S. tax system focuses on income, not so-called “unrealized gains” from unsold stocks, real estate or other assets.

“These are extremely well-known facts,” said Jeffrey Hoopes, a tax expert and associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“If you don’t realize [the income], you don’t pay,” Hoopes added.

This wouldn’t change under Biden’s proposals for changing the U.S. tax code. Biden wants to nudge the top income tax from 37.9 percent to 39.6 percent for Americans earning more than $400,000 a year and raise taxes on the sale of certain assets -- known as capital gains -- from 20 percent to the top income rate.

Biden has rejected a so-called wealth tax, such as the one proposed during the presidential campaign by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), which would institute a tax on unsold assets for the ultra-rich. Biden has also proposed raising taxes on corporations, a number of which pay little if any corporate income taxes, according to some estimates.

The Trump administration and congressional Republicans slashed taxes across the board in 2017, and Republicans have vowed to block any efforts by the Biden administration to roll back those changes. Their position has created a big roadblock for key pieces of Biden’s agenda, including the White House’s push to approve an infrastructure package.

There already was some data about taxes paid by the wealthiest Americans, but nothing on the scale of what ProPublica said it obtained.

The IRS publishes a report on the taxes paid by the top 400 taxpayers based on adjusted gross income. The most recent version, which uses anonymous data, showed that in 2014 these richest Americans paid an average 23.13 percent federal income tax rate.

Information from individual IRS tax forms are closely guarded secrets and, in recent years, have loomed large in political fights after President Donald Trump refused to release his personal income tax forms in the run-up to and during his presidency, claiming his tax forms were under an IRS audit. It was unclear how ProPublica obtained the records.

Biden says he won't raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000

The records, though, purport to show Warren Buffett, head of Berkshire Hathaway, as having paid $23.7 million in federal income taxes on total income of $125 million from 2014 to 2018, which would indicate a personal income tax rate of 19 percent. ProPublica estimated that Buffett saw his wealth soar by $24.3 billion during that period and so his “true tax rate” was 0.10 percent.

Buffett has in the past called for tougher restrictions on the wealthy to prevent them avoiding paying taxes.

Likewise, Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, paid $455 million on $1.52 billion in income during the same period, when his wealth grew by $13.9 billion, accounting for a “true tax rate” of 3.27 percent, according to ProPublica.

Jeff Bezos, chief executive of Amazon and the owner of The Washington Post, paid $973 million in taxes on $4.22 billion in income, as his wealth soared by $99 billion, resulting in a 0.98 percent “true tax rate.”

Spokespeople for Musk and Bezos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a statement to ProPublica, Buffett said that his company, Berkshire Hathaway, pays a large amount of corporate income tax and that he has planned for more than 99 percent of his personal wealth to go to taxes and philanthropy.

“I believe the money will be of more use to society if disbursed philanthropically than if it is used to slightly reduce an ever-increasing U.S. debt,” Buffett wrote in the statement.

“But that will be for Congress to determine,” through changes to U.S. tax policy, he added.

Click to expand...

hanimmal said:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/06/08/wealthy-irs-taxes/
View attachment 4918972

Click to expand...

Analysis: More than 6,000 lobbyists have worked on taxes in 2017

That means there are more than 11 lobbyists working on taxes for every member of Congress.

thehill.com

President Biden and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.a) ended negotiations over the president’s infrastructure package on Tuesday as the two sides failed to strike a deal after weeks of talks.

The administration will now focus its efforts on conversations with a bipartisan group of senators, as it continues to search for support for the president’s wide-ranging infrastructure package, an administration official said Tuesday.

And Senate Democrats are looking at the possibility of breaking the infrastructure package in two. They could try and assemble one bill with Republicans and then try and pass a separate measure with only Democratic support in an effort to meet all of their objectives, but both strategies could prove difficult execute.

Biden spoke Tuesday afternoon with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who has been part of the bipartisan effort, which will meet Tuesday evening, as well as Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.a) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).

Biden offers tax concession on infrastructure in talks with Capito.

An administration official said the talks with Capito, the GOP’s top negotiator, fell apart after the president could not get her group to increase their overall spending on the plan, and they continued to disagree on how to pay for it.

“He informed Senator Capito today that the latest offer from her group did not, in his view, meet the essential needs of our country to restore our roads and bridges, prepare us for our clean energy future, and create jobs,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. “He offered his gratitude to her for her efforts and good faith conversations, but expressed his disappointment that, while he was willing to reduce his plan by more than $1 trillion, the Republican group had increased their proposed new investments by only $150 billion.”

But Capito pinned the blame on the president, saying she was “disappointed by his decision” to end the talks after refusing her latest offer on a revised package.

Time could be running out for infrastructure deal.

“Despite the progress we made in our negotiations, the president continued to respond with offers that included tax increases as his pay for, instead of several practical options that would have not been harmful to individuals, families, and small businesses,” she said in a statement. “While I appreciate President Biden’s willingness to devote so much time and effort to these negotiations, he ultimately chose not to accept the very robust and targeted infrastructure package, and instead, end our discussions.”

There were numerous areas of disagreement. Biden had originally proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent as part of the plan, but many Republicans remained adamant that the corporate tax rate wouldn’t change. Biden later showed an openness to only raising the rate to 25 percent, and last week began pushing Republicans to see if they would accept any tax changes whatsoever.

Many Republicans had agreed that there needed to be large investments in U.S. infrastructure, but they had alleged that Biden’s original definition of “infrastructure” was too broad. For example, many Republicans objected to Biden’s proposal that would include spending on eldercare and other services as part of the package
Biden had proposed a massive infrastructure package as a key part of his 2020 campaign, saying he wanted to rebuild roads, bridges, highways and ports, expand access to housing and broadband, and effectively modernize the United States for the 21st century.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) now faces a crucial decision over how to proceed. He could try and advance a measure with only Democratic votes through a process called “reconciliation,” but there would be little room for error because the Senate is split 50-50. Biden’s outreach to Republicans on Tuesday suggests he still wants to find a way to assemble a bipartisan coalition, only now it appears possible that Capito might not be part of it.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday before talks collapsed, Schumer said Democrats are proceeding on two paths.

On one track are newly emerging conversations between Biden and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Sinema and Portman, who are “trying to put something together that might be close to what the president needs.” At the same time, however, Schumer said Democrats are getting to work on reconciliation, acknowledging that Democrats are unlikely to accomplish everything they hope in a bill crafted alongside the GOP.

“It may well be part of the bill that’ll pass will be bipartisan, and part of it will be through reconciliation,” Schumer said. “But we’re not going to sacrifice the bigness and boldness in this bill.”

The president’s efforts at negotiations, however, could be slowed as he leaves
Wednesday for his first international trip. Psaki said Biden has designated members of his cabinet and senior White House staff to continue conversations as he heads overseas.

The White House has also not ruled out pushing the legislation through budget reconciliation if they cannot strike a deal with Republicans.

“The President is committed to moving his economic legislation through Congress this summer, and is pursuing multiple paths to get this done,” Psaki said in her statement.

Click to expand...

Prices were up by 5 percent in May compared with a year ago, the largest increase since the Great Recession, continuing a steady climb in inflation even as policymakers insist on staying the course.

Data released Thursday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that prices rose 0.6 percent in the past month. Policymakers have predicted that prices will rise over the coming months, especially compared to a year ago, when the economy was still reeling from coronavirus pandemic shutdowns.

“We are entering what will no doubt be a long, hot summer as consumers continue to spend faster than most producers and service providers can keep up,” wrote Grant Thornton chief economist Diane Swonk in an analyst note.

The most recent inflation figures are unlikely to rattle the Biden administration or the Federal Reserve, both of which argue that prices will continue to rise as the economy recovers from the depths of the coronavirus crisis.

Yellen says inflation could reach 3 percent this year as recovery continues

“While, no doubt, the topline increase in inflation will command the attention of policymakers at the Federal Reserve, the underlying tone and tenor of the data will not result in any change of policy,” wrote Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, in an analyst note.

The price of used cars and trucks continued to surge, rising 7.3 percent in May compared to April. That followed a 10 percent increase in April.

A complicated and unusual range of factors have seized on the market for used cars and rental cars, triggering nationwide shortages. Many rental car companies sold their fleets during the pandemic, leaving them scrambling as Americans start traveling again. On the supply chain side, a shortage of semiconductors has also made it hard for companies to restock their lots.

Prices for household furnishings and services increased 1.3 percent in May, its largest monthly increase since January 1976, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The indexes for domestic services, along with categories tracking furniture and bedding, helped drive the increase.

One way companies are concealing higher prices: Smaller packages

The Fed is charged with keeping prices stable and the unemployment rate low. And for now, it is not rushing to control inflation until substantial progress has been made in the labor market, which is still down 7 million jobs.

On Saturday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said inflation could rise as high as 3 percent over the entire year, which would be considered high for the United States. Still, it’s unclear just how high inflation will be allowed to climb, and for how long, before policymakers in the administration and the Fed see cause for concern.

Once Trump’s ‘enemy,’ Fed emerges as White House ally in rejecting concerns about overdoing stimulus

Fed and administration officials point to factors that, they say, are temporarily driving prices up. Demand for goods and services — including on things such as concert tickets and restaurants — is rebounding as more people become vaccinated and are eager to unleash pent-up savings. Meanwhile, supply chains are struggling to catch up. Economists say that those bottlenecks will smooth out over time — and require patience from consumers and policymakers alike.

“Consumers will still have to deal with transitory price increases and either accept them or make other choices,” Brusuelas wrote.

Airline tickets are a prime example. Prices rose 7 percent in May after surging 10.2 percent in April.

But in some instances, prices are already starting to cool down. Data show that prices for hotels and motels rose 7.6 percent in April. They increased only 0.4 percent in May.

Some economists are eyeing the cost of rent, which makes up a large share of many Americans’ budgets. Rental prices didn’t swing wildly during the pandemic and only increased 0.2 percent in May. But it’s still up 1.8 percent over last year. Once rent rises and tenant are locked into leases, it may be harder for rent to fall back down. Only time may tell.

Generally, policymakers expect inflation figures to taper off in the year to come. That’s in part because the super-low readings from the pandemic’s early days will gradually shift out of the calculation.

Click to expand...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure deal has been thrown in doubt as Republican senators said they felt “blindsided” by his insistence that it must move in tandem with his bigger package. The White House doubled down on the strategy, meanwhile, saying it should have come as no surprise.

The rare accord over some $1 trillion in investments faced new uncertainty Friday, barely 24 hours after Biden strode to the White House driveway, flanked by 10 senators from a bipartisan group, with all sides beaming over the compromise.

Senators were described as “stunned,” “floored” and “frustrated” after Biden publicly put the conditions on accepting their deal, according to two people familiar with the private conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the reactions.

“I’ve been on the phone with the White House, my Democratic colleagues, my Republican colleagues, all darn day,” said Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, the lead Republican negotiator, in an interview Friday.

“My hope is that we’ll still get this done. It’s really good for America. Our infrastructure is in bad shape,” he said. “It’s about time to get it done.”



White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who was asked at her briefing about the GOP dismay, said senators should not have been surprised by the two-track strategy that Biden has publicly discussed on many occasions.

“That hasn’t been a secret. He hasn’t said it quietly. He hasn’t even whispered it,” she said.

Psaki said the president plans to stand by the commitment he made to the senators. “And he expects they’ll do the same,” she said.

The path ahead is now uncertain.

Senators launched into calls Friday seeking answers from the White House after a tumultuous past month of on-again, off-again negotiations over Biden’s $4 trillion infrastructure proposals, his top legislative priority.

The Democrats’ two-track strategy has been to consider both the bipartisan deal and their own more sweeping priorities side by side, a way to assure liberal lawmakers the smaller deal won’t be the only one.

But Biden’s vow to essentially veto or refuse to sign the bipartisan accord without the companion package being negotiated by Democrats, which is now eyed at nearly $6 trillion in child care, Medicare and other investments, was an additional step that throws the process into doubt.

“No deal by extortion!” tweeted Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Friday.

Biden reached out Friday to the lead Democratic negotiator, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and reiterated his strong support for the compromise agreement, according to a readout from the White House.

Tensions appeared to calm later in the day, after senators from the group of negotiators convened a conference call, according to another person who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

A bipartisan accord has been important for the White House as it tries to show centrist Democrats including Sinema, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and others that it is working across the aisle before Biden tries to muscle the broader package through Congress under special budget rules that allow majority passage without the need for GOP votes.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky set the tone for the sudden turn of events, signaling late Thursday where the party was headed.

He framed the argument in a floor speech and a subsequent Fox News interview, declaring that Biden’s messaging from his two news conferences Thursday “makes your head spin.”

McConnell has been highly skeptical of Biden’s agenda, vowing his “100%” focus to defeat it. He is not part of the negotiating team of five Republican and five Democratic senators who have been laboring for months on a potential deal.

Senators who were part of the bipartisan group were initially thrilled at striking the compromise. Many of them spoke about how it would be good not just for rebuilding the nation’s roads and bridges, but also for showing the world that the United States government was functioning well.

Only after senators tuned in later to Biden’s second news conference, where he outlined the path ahead, did frustrations mount and frantic phone calls begin.

At the press conference, Biden was asked what he meant by having the two packages move through Congress to his desk in “tandem.”

“If they don’t come, I’m not signing. Real simple,” Biden said.

Senators from the group were never told of such an explicit linking of the two packages, the two people familiar with the discussions said.

It never came up in their talks with the White House advisers or with Biden himself during Thursday’s meeting of the group of 10 key negotiators, they said.

“There’s a lot of conversations taking place right now as to what the president meant,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., in an interview with a Fox affiliate in New Orleans shared by his office.

Cassidy noted that the president may have misspoken and said he hoped “it won’t be as if we crafted something just to give the president a point of leverage to get something that Republicans disagree with.”

Ten Republican senators would be needed to pass the bipartisan accord in the 50-50 Senate, where 60 votes are required to advance most bills.

While the senators in the bipartisan group are among some of the more independent-minded lawmakers, known for bucking their party’s leadership, it appears McConnell’s criticism of Biden’s approach could peel away Republican support.

The White House insisted that senators have been well aware of the two-bill strategy, which has been openly discussed for months. They all but dared the Republicans to argue their way out of supporting what appeared to be a popular compromise of shared priorities.

“That’s a pretty absurd argument for them to make,” Psaki said. “Good luck.”

Democrats plan to push the broader package through using a special budget process that would allow passage of their own priorities on a simple majority vote of 51 senators, with Vice President Kamala Harris a tiebreaker.

Progressive lawmakers have pushed for the more robust investments and could withhold their votes, as well, on any bipartisan package unless they have guarantees the $1 trillion effort won’t be the end of the road.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Friday that the bipartisan infrastructure bill “simply isn’t enough.”

Click to expand...

LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — President Joe Biden declared there is an urgent need for a “generational investment” in the nation’s infrastructure, as he looked to sell voters Tuesday on the economic benefits of the $973 billion bipartisan package that still faces an uncertain future in Congress.

Biden traveled to La Crosse, Wisconsin, population 52,000, and toured its public transit center, highlighting projects — including hybrid buses and road repair equipment — that would receive additional funding from the infrastructure bill. He argued that the package, which is held together in large part by the promise of millions of new jobs, is a way for the United States to assert both the principles of democracy and the economic might that can come from dramatic investments in the country’s future.

“This deal isn’t just the sum of its parts. It’s a signal to ourselves, and to the world, that American democracy can come through and deliver for all our people,” said Biden. “America has always been propelled into the future by landmark investments.”

He said there is a critical need to improve crumbling infrastructure — from overwhelmed power grids to lead-filled water pipes to traffic-clogged roads — and stressed that a plan needs to be ambitious to not only improve Americans’ daily lives now but also to combat the growing challenges of climate change.

“We’re not just tinkering around the edges,” Biden said.

He also made his pitch in personal terms, reminiscing about driving a bus during law school and noting the 1972 traffic accident that killed his first wife and daughter, as he called for improvements to make the nation’s roads safer.

The visit to Wisconsin was the beginning of what the White House has declared would be a series of presidential trips to sell the bipartisan bill — and to reassure the nervous Republicans who helped craft it.

“I’m going to be out there making the case for the American people until this job is done, until we bring this bipartisan bill home,” said the president, though he allowed that “there will be more disagreements to be resolved, more compromises” to be made.

The process briefly fell into disarray late last week as Biden suggested the deal would be held up until he also received a separate package for infrastructure, jobs and education that would be determined solely by Democrats through the budget reconciliation process.

Biden said Saturday that this was not a veto threat, and by Sunday the package appeared back on track. But there were still anxieties on both sides of the aisle.

Some Republicans have questioned the wisdom of signing onto a bipartisan bill if it is linked to a party-line reconciliation bill that will contain a host of Democratic priorities. And GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, who has often declared his steadfast opposition to the Biden agenda, has questioned the process.

Meanwhile, a balancing act awaited among Democrats as well: Some more liberal members of the party have urged Biden to push for a Democrats-only reconciliation bill at least as large as his previously stated $4 trillion goal, while some more moderate members have signaled they’d want a much smaller number. With the Senate deadlocked 50-50, with ties broken by Vice President Kamala Harris, the White House can’t afford to lose a single vote.

As Biden trumpeted the deal in public, the White House also furiously worked behind the scenes to keep it on the tracks.

Senior West Wing aides have had calls this week with more than 60 Democratic and Republican members and chiefs of staff and other aides, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday aboard Air Force One en route to Wisconsin. And she said the White House was going along with the timeline outlined by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has said he wants to have both packages on the floor for debate next month.

An internal White House memo highlights how the administration contends the largest investment in transportation, water systems and services in nearly a century would boost growth. The memo notes that the total package is four times the size of the infrastructure investment made a dozen years ago in response to the Great Recession and the biggest since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s.

It also emphasizes an analysis suggesting that 90% of the jobs generated by the spending could go to workers without college degrees, a key shift as a majority of net job gains before the pandemic went to college graduates.

“This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America,” the memo says.

The visit to La Crosse was indeed a blue-collar political play, with faux traffic construction signs that said “American Jobs Plan” dotted across the venue. The president has long connected with working-class voters, while Wisconsin is one of the trio of Great Lakes states — along with Michigan and Pennsylvania — that Biden narrowly reclaimed for the Democrats after they were captured by Donald Trump in 2016.

Biden, making an impromptu stop for ice cream after his speech, received a suggestion to order the rocky road flavor as a nod to the infrastructure bill but he quipped “it’s been a rocky road, but we’re going to get it done” and instead ordered cookies and cream and strawberry.

Potential economic gains were a shared incentive for the group of Democratic and Republican senators who agreed to the deal last week. McConnell said he has not yet decided whether he will support the bipartisan package, but he wants Biden to pressure House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Schumer to say they will allow the bipartisan arrangement to pass without mandating that the much larger and broader follow-up bill be in place.

“I appreciate the president saying that he’s willing to deal with infrastructure separately, But he doesn’t control the Congress,” McConnell said this week.

The two bills had always been expected to move in tandem, and that is likely to continue as Biden drops his veto threat but reaches across the aisle for the nearly $1 trillion bipartisan package as well as his own broader package. The Democratic leaders are pressing ahead on the broader bill, which includes Biden’s families and climate change proposals, as well as their own investments in Medicare, swelling to some $6 trillion.

One of the Democratic moderates, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, reiterated Tuesday that he would be amenable to a party-line budget bill but did not address its size.

He told MSNBC that “I have agreed that that can be done.”

Click to expand...

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) on Sunday said that he opposed a House infrastructure bill because Democrats want to "muck it up" with spending on health care and education.

"I think infrastructure is popular," McCaul told Fox News host Mike Emanuel. "I think it is bipartisan. I know the Senate working with the president is trying to work out a bipartisan agreement. That's our best chance for success here."

"I think what the House [Speaker Nancy Pelosi] put forward was a totally partisan measure," he continued. "One out of every two dollars went to the Green New Deal. Totally unacceptable to Republicans."

McCaul argued that Democrats should be focused on what he called "traditional infrastructure" like roads and bridges.

He opposed the Democratic bill because he said his opponents were going to "muck it up" with other types of infrastructure.

"Things that have nothing to do with infrastructure," McCaul complained. "I worry that they're going to expand health care and education that have nothing to do with infrastructure."

Watch the video below from Fox News.

Click to expand...

In this impoverished pocket of the United States, the most recent round of stimulus payments — $1,400 for Americans who earn up to $75,000 — was the difference between getting a medical treatment and not, enrolling a child in college and not. But political divisions are deep here, and Trump voters, who make up the great majority of residents, are blaming the payments for a range of ills.

Some here say the Biden stimulus checks are keeping people from work, fueling a sense that the undeserving are exploiting the system. As the price of basic goods climbs, others worry that the stimulus will lead to runaway inflation on wood, cars, even milk.

“My God-honest opinion was at first that it was nice that the government was helping people,” said Brad Jeffries, 50, a truck driver who was laid off for most of last year and used the stimulus to pay off bills. “But since we got that, everything has went up, so how is that helping people out?”

This former Democratic stronghold has shifted right recently, and many residents now refer to the area as “Trump country.” In 2020, President Donald Trump received an average of 72 percent of the vote in the 420 counties covered by the Appalachian Regional Commission, a joint federal-state agency that steers resources to the 13-state region.

Biden has promised to win some of those voters back with economic incentives like the stimulus and the expanded child tax credit program, which will begin monthly payments to parents in mid-July of $350 per-child under the age 6, and $250 per child for children between 6 and 17.

A Washington Post analysis estimates that more than 90 percent of Trump voters in Monroe County received stimulus checks, one of the highest rates in the region.

“The president understands when we raise the quality of life and achievement of rural America, we improve the quality of life for all Americans,” said Gayle Manchin, whom Biden appointed co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission this spring.

The economy isn’t going back to February 2020. Fundamental shifts have occurred.




In a county where home buyers can find properties for $25,000 and the top shopping destination is the Dollar Store, residents said their stimulus checks were put to good use.

Some bought lawn mowers or tractors. Many paid down debt, or used the money to finally make the hour-long trip to the doctor or dentist, a drive that takes them past hayfields and barns emblazoned with giant “Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco” ads.

One man in Sardis, who asked to be identified by only his first name, Edward, has been surviving on Social Security disability payments for 34 years. He suffered a brain injury and a collapsed eardrum when a former hunting buddy beat him in the head with brass knuckles during an alcohol-fueled dispute.

About half of Edward’s $500-a-month disability check goes to utility bills and rent for his government-subsidized one-bedroom apartment.

To get by, Edward, 59, mows his neighbors’ lawns in exchange “for free beer, a carton of cigarettes or a few dollars.” Last month, Edward used his stimulus check to buy new work boots, a bicycle, gasoline for his lawn mower and a weed eater in hopes of broadening his business.

“So, it definitely helped me out,” said Edward, who did not vote in the last election but generally liked Trump’s policies.

Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty and favoring individuals over businesses

But like others, Edward also blames the stimulus for the rising price of essentials.

“Everyone keeps telling me we are going to pay this money back somehow, and I am already starting to see it with the price of gas, and the price of tomatoes,” he said. “I wonder if we are going to end up even worse off than before we got it.”

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that consumer prices nationwide rose by 5 percent in May compared with a year earlier, the largest increase since 2008. Prices for household furnishings and services increased 1.3 percent in May, their largest monthly increase since January 1976.

Many residents here also say the payments have led to a labor shortage. Although Monroe County has a 7 percent unemployment rate, many store owners and managers here and across the Ohio River in West Virginia say they have been struggling to find workers.

Jeffries, for example, said his daughter and her husband quit their jobs in the spring “when they got IRS [tax refunds] and then their stimulus on top of that.”

“They haven’t worked in two months,” said Jeffries, who works in the natural gas extraction industry. “I love her to death, but she is living off the system as bad as anyone else.”

At Marv’s Place diner in Sardis, where residents gather for hearty meals including deep-fried green beans and $12.25 pot roast dinners, Carmella Ivey said the stimulus payment arrived at just the right time.



'We are just trying to burn money'

The stimulus boosted Americans’ household wealth to a record $136.9 trillion in the spring, according to the Federal Reserve. And Biden argues that the most recent jobs report — the U.S. ecenomy added 850,000 jobs in June — is a sign his strategy of “growing the economy from the bottom up” is working.



Retail workers are quitting at record rates for higher-paying work: ‘My life isn’t worth a dead-end job’




But like many rural counties in recent years, the area has surged right.

In the Trump era, amid a steady decline in union jobs and a booming natural gas industry, that trend accelerated. Trump received 76 percent of the vote here last year.

During the campaign, Biden argued that his populist policies would appeal to the White working-class voters who’ve fled the party.



The seven political states of Ohio

Click to expand...

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says she will lead an effort by top U.S. regulators to assess the potential risk that climate change poses to America’s financial system, part of a wide-ranging initiative launched by the Biden administration.

Yellen says the regulatory review, which will be done by the Financial Stability Oversight Council, will examine whether banks and other lending institutions are properly assessing the risks to financial stability. She chairs the committee, which includes Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other financial regulators.

“The current financial system is not producing reliable disclosures,” Yellen said in remarks prepared for the Venice International Conference on Climate and released in Washington.

As part of President Joe Biden’s whole-of-government approach, Yellen said, the council will examine what should be done to improve current regulations on climate-related financial disclosures.

The council was created by Congress in 2010 to improve regulatory coordination in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

Banking executives are concerned that the administration’s effort could lead to increased regulatory oversight that will drive up banks’ cost of doing business and lessen their ability to make loans.

Yellen said the United States also intended to enlist the support of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other multilateral development banks to focus more resources on combating climate change. The World Bank and the regional development banks are leading sources of the loans used by poor nations for dams and other development projects.

“Developing countries are particularly vulnerable to climate change with poverty, food security and health outcomes impacted by extreme weather shocks,” Yellen said.

She said the administration is backing international efforts to mobilize $100 billion per year from a variety of public and private sources to support efforts by developing countries to combat climate change.

Yellen said she planned to convene a meeting of the heads of the international lending institutions to discuss ways to better align their efforts with the Paris climate agreement. The Trump administration pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, but Biden reversed that decision after taking office this year.

Since taking over as Treasury secretary, Yellen has been one of the leading voices in the administration to boost government efforts to combat climate change.

The administration is also making a big push to include huge investments to slow global warming in the multitrillion-dollar infrastructure spending measures Biden is pushing Congress to approve. That effort has run into Republican opposition with various Biden climate initiatives striped out of a bipartisan infrastructure measure.

Environmentalists say a larger, Democratic-only package that is now being developed needs to meet Biden’s ambitious climate promises such as moving the country to carbon-free production of electricity and becoming a global leader in use of electric vehicles and the creation of millions of jobs in solar, wind and other clean-energy industries.

The Venice international conference on climate Sunday followed a meeting of finance officials from the Group of 20 major economies in Venice on Saturday. That group backed a sweeping revision of international taxation that includes a 15% global minimum tax on corporations to deter big companies from seeking out low-rate tax havens.

The measure is scheduled to be a key agenda item when Biden and other G-20 leaders meet for a summit in Rome on Oct. 30-31.

Click to expand...

Ousted Social Security commissioner Andrew Saul, the Trump appointee who declared Friday he would defy his firing by President Biden, on Monday found his access to agency computers cut off, even as his acting replacement moved to undo his policies.

“I’m here to do the job,” Saul said from his home in Katonah, N.Y., where he had led the agency since the coronavirus pandemic forced most operations to shift in March 2020 to remote work, “but I can’t do anything with the communications shut down.”

Saul, 74, called his firing and that of his deputy David Black, in an email from the White House Personnel Office, a “palace coup” that he said blindsided him, given that his six-year term was not set to expire until 2025. As Republicans made plans to defend him, Saul said he had no public announcement — yet — on his strategy to remain in office as the “duly confirmed Social Security commissioner.”

“There will be more,” said Saul, a wealthy former women’s apparel executive and prominent Republican donor who had served on the board of a conservative think tank that has called for cuts to Social Security benefits. “Stay tuned.”

His acting successor, Biden appointee Kilolo Kijakazi, took the reins Monday and was briefed by her staff on the agency’s top priorities, advocates in touch with her office said, including much anticipated planning for the safe reopening of Social Security’s national network of 1,200 field offices. The agency has been under pressure for months from lawmakers in both parties to return to serving the public in person after complaints from constituents who do not have access to the Internet.

“Acting Commissioner Kijakazi is engaging with her leadership team across the agency as she transitions into her new job,” spokesman Mark Hinkle wrote in an email. Saul’s name and that of deputy commissioner David Black, who resigned Friday following a request from the White House, were stripped from the agency’s organization chart.

Experts in federal personnel law, meanwhile, said it was doubtful that Saul could successfully sue the administration to get his job back, following two rulings by the Supreme Court that affirmed the authority of the president to fire the head of an independent agency with a single leader.

“I think he can make a lot of noise and get the Republicans to make noise,” said Nancy Altman, an attorney and president of Social Security Works, an advocacy group that had called for Saul to go, “but in terms of the law, I would be shocked if a court found the president didn’t have the power to fire him.” At the most, Altman and others said, a court may find him eligible for financial compensation — but not return him to his job.

Saul’s firing was Biden’s latest dismissal of a Trump-appointed head of an independent agency whose terms have traditionally been fixed to insulate the agency from politics. Biden removed the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency in late June after the Supreme Court ruled that he had the authority to do so. The court last year ruled that Trump was within his rights to similarly remove the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

But the Social Security Administration is far more well known to Americans, and the political fallout from Saul’s ouster looked to have broader repercussions. The other difference: Saul’s refusal on Friday to resign, as Biden initially requested, and to fight his later firing. The Social Security Administration pays out more than $1 trillion a year in benefits to seniors, the disabled and low-income Americans.

As head of an independent agency whose leadership has historically straddled incoming and outgoing presidential administrations, Saul had served for six months under Biden. But he had alienated key Democratic constituencies with a get-tough approach to federal employee unions and policies designed to clamp down on Americans’ eligibility for benefits. Labor leaders, advocates for the disabled and lawmakers on Capitol Hill called for months on Biden to dismiss him, asserting that he was a right-wing Trump advocate whose agenda was at odds with the administration’s.

A White House spokesman said Monday that any questions about Saul’s service to the federal government were resolved last week.

“As you know, the President asked for Andrew Saul’s resignation on Friday, and after he refused to submit it, his employment was terminated,” said Chris Meagher, a deputy White House press secretary. “As with any employment termination, the government has taken steps to offboard Andrew Saul as we would any other former employee.”

But Senate Republicans said they do not plan to let Saul’s firing go quietly, and will seek to bring attention to what they called an ill-advised attempt by Biden to politicize a familiar, nonpartisan part of the federal government that touches 64 million Americans a year.

Compared with the consumer protection and housing agency firings, Biden’s dismissal of the Social Security leader stands as unprecedented and far more significant, they said.

Senate GOP aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss political strategy, said they plan floor speeches starting this week — possibly by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), a former Finance Committee chairman who has long taken an interest in the Social Security Administration — to express their dismay with the White House.

They also planned to focus on Saul’s 2019 confirmation, by a vote of 77 to 16, as a sign of rare bipartisanship.

Republicans also said they are considering procedural actions to block any permanent Biden nominees to the agency on the Senate floor.

“It’s not like Saul was a blazing partisan,” said one Senate GOP aide. “Our view is that longer terms for agencies like this exist for a reason.” Saul’s confirmation was not a small vote, and we plan to protect the Senate position in appointments.”

This is not the first time that confusion has reigned over the firing of a head of an independent agency.
When the outgoing head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau named an acting director to lead the watchdog agency in 2017, Trump appointed his own head, then-White House budget director Mick Mulvaney.

The confusion over who was rightfully in charge set up a legal clash that eventually landed at the Supreme Court, as the high-ranking internal official sued to block Trump from installing Mulvaney. The agency was in turmoil for months as Mulvaney eventually took over.

As the partisan fallout from Saul’s firing continues, Kijakazi is confronting the demand for changes from his policies by the administration and advocates. At the top of the list is a restoration of harmony with the unions representing administrative law judges and the rest of the more than 60,000 employees at Social Security, who clashed with Saul over union rights, working conditions and how much low-income and disabled American receiving disability benefits should have to prove their eligibility.

While more and more routine business can be done online, the field office staff gives in-person assistance on complex matters, among them applications for disability programs that have plunged during the pandemic.

Biden also has laid out an expansive plan for the program, pledging during his campaign to expand Social Security benefits and remove some policies that advocates say make it harder for those in need to get benefits and continue to receive them.

“There’s a myth that Social Security can be above politics,” Altman said. “But it’s obvious that every decision you make is a policy decision.”

Click to expand...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats say they have reached a budget agreement envisioning spending an enormous $3.5 trillion over the coming decade, paving the way for their drive to pour federal resources into climate change, health care and family service programs sought by President Joe Biden.

The accord announced Tuesday night marks a major step in the party’s push to meet Biden’s goal of bolstering an economy that was ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic and setting it on course for long-term growth — and includes a Medicare expansion of vision, hearing and dental benefits for older Americans, a goal of progressives.

But Democrats behind the agreement face possible objections from their rival moderate and progressive factions and will have to work hard to convert their plans into legislation they can push through the closely divided Congress over what could be unanimous Republican opposition.

“We are very proud of this plan,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters. “We know we have a long road to go. We’re going to get this done for the sake of making average Americans’ lives a whole lot better.”

Biden was set to attend a closed-door lunch at the Capitol on Wednesday with all Senate Democrats “to lead us on to getting this wonderful plan” enacted, Schumer said.

All told, the ambitious proposal reflects Biden’s vision for making the most substantive potential investments in the nation in years, some say on par with the New Deal of the 1930s. Together with a slimmer, $1 trillion bipartisan effort of traditional road, highway and public works also being negotiated, they represent close to the president’s initial $4 trillion-plus effort that could reach almost every corner of the country.

The Democrats’ goal is to push a budget resolution reflecting Tuesday’s agreement through the House and the Senate before lawmakers leave for their August recess. The resolution sets only broad spending and revenue parameters, leaving the actual funding and specific decisions about which programs are affected — and by how much — for later legislation.

Nonetheless, approving a budget will be a major boon for the Democrats’ effort to enact their subsequent funding bill. That’s because the budget contains language that would let Democrats move the follow-up spending measure through the 50-50 Senate with just a simple majority, not the 60 votes Republicans could demand by using a bill-killing filibuster.

The later spending legislation will likely not start moving through Congress until the fall.

Separately Tuesday, a bipartisan group of senators continued working on a third measure that would spend around $1 trillion on roads, water systems and other infrastructure projects, another Biden priority. Biden and 10 senators — five from each party — had agreed to an outline of that compromise measure last month, and bargainers have worked ever since to flesh it out.

The president was also planning to push for public support of the infrastructure proposal by hosting a bipartisan group of governors and mayors at the White House on Wednesday afternoon. There, he plans to emphasize the bipartisan aspects of the proposal, as senators work feverishly to firm up the final details in time for a Thursday deadline.

In discussing the budget agreement, Schumer and other lawmakers did not respond when asked if they had the support of all 50 Democratic senators, which they will need to succeed. They also have virtually no margin for error in the House, where they will be able to lose no more than three Democratic votes and still prevail.

Moderates like Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., might still demand further changes to reduce the plan’s price tag and impact on already huge federal deficits. Progressives in both chambers might insist on beefing it up or other changes.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the Budget Committee chairman, and other progressives pushed initially for a $6 trillion budget top line while party moderates insisted on a far lower price tag. Biden had proposed around $4.5 trillion.

The Democrats’ announcement Tuesday left many questions about their budget accord unanswered. These included how much it would raise through tax increases on the wealthy and corporations and other revenue to pay for its costs; how much would be spent on specific programs; and how Biden’s proposals would be curtailed or eliminated to fit into the legislation.

Schumer said the proposal would call for financing Biden’s budget priorities “in a robust way.” He also said it would include a priority of Sanders and other progressives: an expansion of Medicare, the federal health insurance program for older people, to cover dental, vision and hearing services.

Sanders said the agreement would end an era in which rich people and big companies weren’t bearing enough of the burden of financing government programs.

“Those days are gone,” he said. “The wealthy and large corporations are going to start paying their fair share of taxes, so that we can protect the working families of this country.”

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., a leading moderate who helped shape the budget package, said the measure would be fully paid for with offsetting revenue, but he provided no detail. Biden has proposed financing the measure with higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations and beefing up the IRS’ budget so it can collect more revenue from scofflaws.

The budget will include language calling for no tax increases on people making less than $400,000 a year, a Biden demand, or on small businesses. The provision was described by a Democratic aide who insisted on anonymity to discuss the negotiations.

On infrastructure, senators from both parties met Tuesday evening, and their bipartisan deal appeared back on track, after days of disputes. Lawmakers said they were aiming for a new Thursday deadline to wrap up the details despite opposition from business leaders, outside activists and some GOP senators over how to pay for it.

The bipartisan infrastructure effort was thrown into doubt earlier Tuesday when Republicans said it was unlikely it would be ready for a vote next week, as hoped.

But senators exiting the meeting suggested they hadn’t so much resolved the questions over how to pay for the package but moved past them — apparently accepting that some of the proposed revenue streams may not pass muster in formal assessments by the Congressional Budget Office, the lawmakers’ nonpartisan fiscal scorekeeper.

Manchin said he hoped that the CBO’s score, as it is called, would show that “everything’s paid for.”

“If not,” he said, “we’ll have to make some adjustments.”

Even if the bipartisan group can meet its new deadline for agreement, it’s still a long shot the bill would be ready for a vote next week.

Senators have struggled to agree to revenue streams to fund the $1 trillion plan, which includes about $579 billion in new spending beyond regular expenditures already funded by gas taxes and other sources.

At least 10 Republican senators would be needed to back the infrastructure bill, joining with all 50 Democrats to reach the 60-vote threshold because it would still be vulnerable to a filibuster.

When Biden meets with public officials Wednesday afternoon he will highlight some of the areas where Democrats and Republicans agreed, according to details shared first with The Associated Press. Those details include investments in removing lead pipes, expanding access to high-speed internet, transit and rebuilding roads and bridges.

Biden will also speak about his overall economic vision to rebuild the middle class and the impact his policies would have on local communities represented by the mayors and governors joining him at the White House. The details were provided by an administration official not authorized to speak publicly about the president’s plans.

The bipartisan group invited to join Biden at the White House includes Democratic Govs. Phil Murphy of New Jersey and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Republican Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont, along with Dayton, Ohio, Mayor Nan Whaley, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, all Democrats, and Mayors Sandy Stimpson of Mobile, Alabama, and David Holt of Oklahoma City, Republicans.

Click to expand...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said his infrastructure and families agenda must be passed to sustain the economic momentum of his first six months in office, aiming to set the tone for a crucial week of congressional negotiations on the two bills.

But a Wednesday deadline set by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on the bipartisan infrastructure bill was in doubt as Republicans signaled they would block a procedural vote, for now, while details are still being worked out. Senators are wrangling over how to pay for the new spending in the $1 trillion package of highway, water system and other public works projects.

At the same time, Democrats are developing the particulars of a separate bill that would invest a stunning $3.5 trillion nationwide across Americans’ lives — with support for families, education, climate resiliency and other priorities that they aim to ultimately pass with solely Democratic support. Democrats hope to show progress on that bill before lawmakers leave Washington for their recess in August.

The legislative maneuvering marks a major test of Biden’s ability to deliver on a massive package of economic promises and reforms he made during his campaign. He’s been putting public pressure on lawmakers with a series of speeches highlighting the strengthening economy while emphasizing the need for further investment to continue that growth and to bolster the middle class. Biden’s top aides met with senators late Monday.



“What the best companies do — and what we as a country should do — is make smart, sustainable investments with appropriate financing,” the president said Monday at the White House.

Calling his plans a “blue-collar blueprint for building an American economy back,” Biden said, “This is the best strategy to create millions of jobs and lift up middle class families, grow wages and keep prices affordable for the long term.”

The economy has come back to life as more Americans have gotten vaccinated and Biden’s earlier $1.9 trillion relief package has coursed through the country. Employers have added an average of nearly 543,000 jobs a month since January, with Federal Reserve officials anticipating overall economic growth of roughly 7% this year that would be the highest since 1984. Yet there is also uncertainty as employers say they’re struggling to find workers at the current pay levels and inflation concerns have yet to fully abate.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell decried the “spending spree” as “the last thing American families need.”

McConnell and outside groups including the conservative Americans for Prosperity encouraged Republicans to vote against proceeding to the bipartisan package until they have more details. “I think we need to see the bill before we decide whether or not to vote for it,” McConnell told reporters at the Capitol.

The president is pushing for more than $4 trillion in combined spending with the hopes of prolonging solid economic gains. Biden’s $3.5 trillion package focused on climate, schools and families will need support from all 50 Senate Democrats to clear a party line vote.

Key to Biden’s message is that the growth is occurring as intended and helping the U.S. middle class. Yet much of it is expected to fade as the economy fully heals from the pandemic.

But the $973 billion infrastructure deal Biden struck with a group of Republican and Democratic senators lacks a clear plan for how to pay for it as GOP lawmakers have backed away from tax compliance enforcement by the IRS.

Instead, senators in the bipartisan group are considering rolling back a Trump-era rule on pharmaceutical rebates that could bring in some $170 billion to be used for infrastructure. No decisions have yet been made as senators huddled late Monday with administration officials on next steps.

Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, a chief Republican negotiator, said they resolved half of the estimated two dozen unresolved issues after a marathon round of talks late Sunday with the White House.

“It’s absurd to move forward with a vote on something that is not yet formulated,” he said.

Over the weekend Republicans chafed at the prospect of a Wednesday vote, noting that major questions over how to pay for the spending still remain unanswered. The package needs 60 votes to defeat a GOP filibuster, a delaying tactic, and pass the Senate — which means at least 10 Republicans have to join all 50 Democrats in supporting it. With Republicans still expressing concerns over the package, the success of the Wednesday procedural vote remains in doubt.

“It’s time to begin the debate,” Schumer said Monday, setting up the votes.

Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, a key Democratic negotiator, said if Republicans block the vote with a filibuster “that’s a problem. Hopefully, people will be smarter than that.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki dismissed questions Monday over the future of the bill and what the administration would do if Wednesday’s vote is unsuccessful.

“Two days is a lifetime in Washington, so I don’t think we’re going to make predictions of the death of the infrastructure package,” she told reporters.

Biden also used his Monday remarks to push back against Republican critics of his plans who argue massive federal investments in the economy will accelerate inflation.

Consumer prices climbed 5.4% for the year that ended in June, the highest annual increase since August 2008. Higher inflation can erode the wages of workers and ultimately hurt economic growth.

Biden said Monday that his proposed investments would help rebuild U.S. supply chains and ease pressures on U.S. production that some economists say have contributed to inflation.

“If we make prudent, multi-year investments in better roads, bridges, transit systems and high speed internet, a modern resilient electric grid, here’s what will happen: It breaks up the bottlenecks in our economy,” he said.

“These steps will enhance our productivity, raising wages without raising prices. That won’t increase inflation, it’ll take the pressure off of inflation,” Biden added.

Click to expand...