Biden Sets Mid-May Deadline For GOP Infrastructure Counterproposal

President Joe Biden makes remarks during a meeting with with a bipartisan group of Members of Congress to discuss historic investments in the American Jobs Plan, in the Oval Office at the White House, Monday, April, 19, 2021. (Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times)
WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 19: U.S. President Joe Biden (C) speaks during a meeting with a bipartisan group of members of Congress to discuss investments in the American Jobs Plan including (L-R) Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX)... WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 19: U.S. President Joe Biden (C) speaks during a meeting with a bipartisan group of members of Congress to discuss investments in the American Jobs Plan including (L-R) Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Sen. Angus King (I-ME) in the Oval Office at the White House April 19, 2021 in Washington, DC. Biden has proposed raising the corporate tax rate to pay for his initiatives, which include traditional infrastructure projects as well as a major investment in long-term, in-home healthcare. (Photo by Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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Sens. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and John Hoeven (R-ND) told President Joe Biden on Monday night that they are opposed to increasing the corporate tax rate to pay for his proposed $2 trillion infrastructure package as the President calls on Republicans to put forward an alternative plan by the middle of next month.

People familiar with the matter told Axios that the two Republican senators had expressed their opposition to an element of the proposal that suggested raising the corporate rate to 28 percent, during a bipartisan Oval Office meeting with the President on Monday. 

“I am prepared to compromise,” Biden had said at the start of the more than an hourlong session with a group of Republican and Democratic senators and House members who previously served as mayors and governors. 

Romney told The New York Times that during the meeting he had raised the possibility of letting state and local governments use money from the pandemic relief package to pay for infrastructure projects.

“He was in listening mode and was gracious to solicit our respective points of view,” Romney said of Biden. “I think they would like to work on a bipartisan basis. I think there’s a great deal of interest on the part of Republicans to improve our infrastructure, and the challenge is going to be how it’s paid for.”

In comments to the Washington Post, Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), who also took part in the session, called the meeting “cordial” and “professional,” and said that Biden presented arguments and data explaining why the corporate tax rate is too low to which Romney offered counterpoints that Biden appeared reluctant to negotiate on. 

“He may not have said it, but I certainly got that impression,” Gimenez said. 

The White House said in a statement after the meeting that the meeting had been a “productive exchange of ideas.” 

“The Members of Congress engaged in a productive exchange of ideas, including components of the plan and how to pay for them. President Biden asked for their feedback and follow-up on proposals discussed in the meeting, while underscoring that inaction is not an option.” 

Per the Post, Gimenez said the President had asked congressional Republicans to present a counterproposal to his plan by mid-May.

“I think that that, for him, would be a starting point for some kind of negotiation,” Gimenez said.

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Notable Replies

  1. OF course… WHY shouldn’t corporations continue to benefit more than they contribute. Only the GOP would support Corporate and 1% tax decreases and think they can get away with it. AND… likely they can; their rubes have proven it time and again.

  2. Avatar for jpc jpc says:

    Wonderful message from the President. Basically, he’s calling their bluff to their faces. Are you part of the solution or are you the problem? If you need more time, then clearly you haven’t been doing your job. These are serious times and we need individuals with rational thoughts - not Republican Party psychosis. Oh, and by the way, the timer is on… What say you?

  3. We’ve had four years of repeatedly being told it was “Infrastructure Week”; they could just bottle up all those great ideas and distill them down and have an instant counterproposal - if that bullshit actually ever existed.

  4. It won’t be a negotiation. He doesn’t think you’ll be able to come up with a proposal that your caucus can agree on, and he is almost certainly right. He just thinks it will take a month for you to realize all of that.

    Once the republican alternative predictably fails to materialize, it will get a lot easier to bring Manchin along. And this keeps things on the early-July timeframe he floated a week or two ago.

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