Republicans release their $568billion counter to Biden's infrastructure plan

Senate Republicans revealed their counter offer to President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package on Thursday, presenting a $568 billion plan that focuses on roads, transit systems, and broadband internet.

The GOP’s two-page proposal has smaller price tag and a narrower definition of infrastructure than Biden’s $2.3 trillion plan. 

‘This is the largest infrastructure investment that Republicans have come forward with,’ Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, who has taken the lead on the proposal, said. ‘This is a robust package.’ 

To pay for their proposal, Republicans would use a combination of user fees, including for electric vehicles, and on redirecting unspent federal dollars. But the outline doesn’t offer specifics on payment, including which federal programs would lose those unspent dollars. 

Senate Republicans revealed their counter offer to President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package

Biden has proposed raising the corporate income tax from 21% to 28% to help pay for his plan. But Republicans have rejected that idea. 

Republicans also have criticized the scope of Biden’s infrastructure plan, which includes money for items like affordable housing, a ‘Climate Corps’ and updates to infrastructure to make it more green.

Biden argues all the elements in his plan pertain to the national infrastructure. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the GOP plan is a starting point for a conversation on what a final infrastructure package could look like

‘The president has said from the beginning that he would welcome any good faith effort to find common ground, because the only unacceptable step would be inaction,’ she said at her daily press briefing.

She said she expected the president to invite lawmakers to the White House to discuss it. 

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell also expressed optimism the GOP plan could lead to a final bipartisan deal.

‘Senator Capito and others are laying out what has the potential to be a reasonable and bipartisan alternative and we’re hoping that Democrats are interested in doing something along those lines,’ he told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday. 

Some Democrats see a focus on traditional infrastructure items – like roads, bridges and airports – as a first step to a larger deal. 

Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a close Biden ally, said on ‘Fox News Sunday’ that the Senate should ‘come together in a bipartisan way to pass that $800 billion hard infrastructure bill’ and then tackle a second package that would include additional items the president is proposing.

Biden also is facing criticism from his left wing, who wanted him to go even bigger on his infrastructure proposal, which he calls the Americans Job Plan. 

The White House is working to mollify progressives with talk of the American Families Plan, a second part of the infrastructure initiative that will be released this month and focus on social programs, including the child tax credit.

The Republican infrastructure plan includes $299 billion for roads and bridges, $20 billion for rail, $44 billion for airports and $61 billion for public transport

But most Republicans strongly oppose the social programs and liberals worry that a smaller first round package passing with bipartisan support could kill the second round proposal. 

The president is expected to roll out that second package next week when he addresses a joint session of Congress. Its price tag could top $1 trillion. 

Top pay for it, Biden wants to hike the top income tax rate back to where it was before the Trump tax cuts and nearly double capital gains rates for top earners.

The president would push the top income tax rate up to 39.6 per cent – where it was before Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. Capital gains – where Biden has already called for changes to end a major ‘loophole,’ would jack up rates from their current 20 per cent for those earning more than $1 million.

Biden has pledged only to raise taxes on households making more than $400,000. But the administration hasn’t been clear as to whether that limit applies to individual earnings or combined household – a distinction that makes a big difference especially in areas on the East and West Coasts where the cost of living is high. 

A handout from Senate Republicans detailing their infrastructure plan