Spending money the U.S. doesn’t have on projects that are not needed
Senate Democrats weigh $6T infrastructure bill, without GOP
Senate Democrats are weighing spending as much as $6 trillion on their own infrastructure package if the chamber’s bipartisan talks fail, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has repeatedly insisted that infrastructure talks are currently on two tracks: The first track is bipartisan, while the second track will include priorities that have no chance of getting GOP support. He huddled on Wednesday afternoon with Democratic members of the Budget Committee to discuss strategy, with no firm decision reached.
By “bipartisan” they mean “the GOP surrendering to the first bill with all the unrelated liberal priorities that they have renamed infrastructure.” The second track is simply just expanding those priorities
Senate Budget Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has been pushing for an aggressive approach to the infrastructure talks and is angling to insert a large expansion of Medicare into Democrats’ plan. Earlier this week, Sanders said he opposed the emerging bipartisan agreement. He acknowledged that the bipartisan talks could impact his plans but vowed to proceed.
What does that have to do with infrastructure?
The details of the bigger plan come as a bipartisan group of senators, led by Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), released details this week of an infrastructure plan that costs about $973 billion over five years or $1.2 trillion over eight. The plan would include $579 billion in new spending, and pay-fors include repurposing unused Covid relief funds, imposing a surcharge on electric vehicles, and expanding use of state and local funds for coronavirus relief.
You know what infrastructure hasn’t really be done since Obama’s Stimulus? Because it becomes to political, they include too much unrelated stuff, and, really, Obama’s stimulus (with VP Joe Biden in charge of it) wasted enormous amounts of money on projects which were not shovel ready and/or unnecessary. I remember them repaving a section of I440 on the northeast side of Raleigh around the Capital Blvd exit. It was utterly unnecessary. But, they had a great sign touting the Stimulus.
The potential $6 trillion in scope, however, is much-welcomed news to the nearly 100-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, which has distributed a wishlist for the package that falls between $6 trillion to $10 trillion. Their list includes universal child care, lowering of Medicare eligibility age, a permanent extension of the child tax credit. The group has also proposed to pay for roughly $3 trillion of its proposal, mostly through tax increases on the wealthiest Americans.
You know how we get an infrastructure bill that works? Deal with actual infrastructure. Dems are trying to create a catchall bill to fund their far left priorities along with bribing voters.
