Biden infrastructure/tax increase megathread

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

So-called Senate GOP 'moderates' will be proposing a non-starter of a counter-offer that cuts Biden's infrastructure plan by more than half, as well as shift the financial burden away from the wealthy and corporations to everybody else.  And following their playbook from the Obama years, they will vote against their own plan should it come close to becoming law even if Democrats adopt it:

A bloc of Senate Republicans prepare their own infrastructure plan as Biden tries to ramp up outreach

The Republican alternative is expected to be less than half the size of the White House’s plan, according to party lawmakers, who in recent days have suggested its total price tag could ultimately cost between $600 billion and $800 billion.

Moderate GOP members of Congress also have pledged to narrow their focus to include only the elements they consider traditional infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, while jettisoning the corporate tax increases that Biden has endorsed in favor of other ways of financing the overall package.

Capito explained that most of the money would go toward roads and bridges and not items many Republicans allege are unrelated to infrastructure. And she joined Republicans in blasting Biden’s proposed tax increases as a nonstarter for the GOP, echoing the staunch opposition earlier this week from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Romney later said the $800 billion price tag may be “a little high,” though he said the proposal is likely to include funding for highways, railways, airports, water and sewer systems, and Internet connectivity. The GOP lawmaker said he hopes to finance it through fees on the users of those services, a category of revenue-raisers that could include higher payments on drivers of gas-powered or electric vehicles. Democrats largely have resisted the idea, fearing it may encroach on Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on Americans who make under $400,000 per year.

As many of us suspected from the start, they are clearly more interested in playing gotcha games than in governing.  

I must say 'water-pipes and hospitals aren't infrastructure' is possibly the dumbest 'centrist' concern I've seen yet, and a perfect encapsulation of the Very Serious mindset

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

Yah and eliminating step up basis would hurt many people in the middle class too

We can quibble about definitions, but I feel confident saying that if a substantial portion of your wealth or income is directly effected by capital gains, you are going to be OK.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

Warner should have been aggressively primaried last year. The warning signs were there but he's going far past Feinstein levels of awful at this point.

He also is ine of the pro-act holdouts.

The problem is two fold, one he is still riding his gubernatorial good will and unearned reputation as the man that saved the VA Democratic Party. The other is that substantial chunk of Virginia Democrats are well-off professionals that don’t give a crap about inequality or labor. Notice the new super liberal omg! Democratic VA government now makes allot of largely symbolic culture wars moves but keeps around the vicious labor regime they inherited.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

I'm a bit confused about the capital gains tax increase. Would it create a tax cliff since it only applies to people whose income is over $1,000,000? Google searches aren't coming up with much detail.

As I understand it, it applies to income over $1,000,000, not people.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

I'm a bit confused about the capital gains tax increase. Would it create a tax cliff since it only applies to people whose income is over $1,000,000? Google searches aren't coming up with much detail.

As I understand it, it applies to income over $1,000,000, not people.

Is that just capital gains over $1,000,000 or all income?

Assuming it works like every other income tax ever, capital gains income over 1,000,000. As in the 1,000,001th dollar and up gets taxed at the new rate.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1400469381361147906

I doubt it will placate Senate Republicans - and Biden is smart enough to know that. This is a show of good faith before taking the nuclear option.

It's a reconciliation package, there is no nuclear option the Dems could just do it. He's stuck with this because Joe Manchin is a self centered jackass

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

Joe Manchin is a giant piece of crap

https://twitter.com/GarrettHaake/status/1400572523985747976?s=20


No actual objections, just strait up ‘I won’t vote for anything Republicans don’t’

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

Why can't Schumer just tell Manchin hells strip him of his chairmanship on the energy committee if he doesn't start voting like an actual Democrat. Start being mean to these people!

Assume Manchin says no and does NOT become a Republican. Where does that leave Schumer? Either backing down or going forward with the threat shows the world that he's completely powerless to make legislation pass. And then he'd still have to deal with Manchin, minus any leverage going forward. Plus it makes Manchin's seat even more vulnerable in 2024 if he chooses to run for reelection.

Yes if you make Joe Manchin angry he might withhold all that meaningful cooperation your getting from him. I’m very scared

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1400512611742097411
At least, Angus King is not delusional like Manchin & Sinema.

This is why I’m pretty sure that the filibuster is only a thing because of Manchin and Sinema’s arrogance. I believe fully well that there is a fairly large minority who likes Manchin taking the heat for killing things, but I don’t think any of them are particularly sympathetic to the random rule that says Mitch McConnell gets to kill anything, at least not in the face of a concerted effort from state level republicans to ensure that their voters can’t vote.

I mean when Angus freaking King is openly ready to go, I can’t imagine anyone else is holding out.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

At least he ended the nowhere discussion with Capito, but why he's still reaching across the aisle is mindboggling to me. Although he is meeting with Schumer, Sinema, and Manchin so hopefully he's really just focusing on getting the borderline Dems to agree to a deal.

He did it because Joe Manchin has publicly demanded it.

So we’ve now cut the package in half for no gain at all. But thank god Mr. Manchin got to feed his ego.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

Alright Manchin, there's your bipartisan charade. Now let's ram this through! Biden Budget Reconciliation 2.0, here we go!!

At least he ended the nowhere discussion with Capito, but why he's still reaching across the aisle is mindboggling to me. Although he is meeting with Schumer, Sinema, and Manchin so hopefully he's really just focusing on getting the borderline Dems to agree to a deal.

He did it because Joe Manchin has publicly demanded it.

So we’ve now cut the package in half for no gain at all. But thank god Mr. Manchin got to feed his ego.

The $1T package was just the final counter-offer to the Senate GOP's offers, which they still didn't go for, so Biden & Congress are free to just budget reconciliation a package of whatever size they want (i.e., the original $2.3T) now.

In theory they could, but in practice every time something like this happens moderate Dems make them keep all the concessions in even though the GOP has walked away. I had thought them to be getting allot better about this with Biden, but Joe Manchin is still a thing.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

A bipartisan panel of House moderates (aka, the 'Problem Solvers Caucus') have weighed in:

House moderates unveil $1.25T infrastructure plan

We'll see how they fund this plan, but this is probably President Biden's best bet on getting that infrastructure package through, assuming Senator Manchin doesn't buy into reconciliation. 

In the coming days, the group - 29 Democrats and 29 Republicans - will offer proposals for how to pay for the package but it is not backing tax increases that Biden and progressives want, sources said.

So in short the ‘Problem Solvers’ have accomplished nothing.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

Bipartisan group of Senators unveiled the same package with no tax hikes and lots of cuts.

Yes, I’m sure the American people were just crying out to do less so that not a single cent of the massive rich people tax giveaway goes back. Thank god Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema were on the case. Sorry disabled kids, your nurses aren’t infrastructure anyway.

Also, is it weird to anyone else that the fiscal conservatives that keep yelling about inflation just waiting to turn us into Greece are all about finding ways to avoid tax increases. I’m starting to suspect that they may have ulterior motives.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

And Manchin and Sinema have indicated openness to a Democratic only plan

https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1404560101617422339
https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1404558902310678528?s=21

I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them.
Manchin’s going to give it a ‘fair look’ by trying to convince Republicans to vote for it and then declare he can’t do it because they didn’t give him permission.

Ignoring the Sinema-Collins-Romney conference and working on reconciliation starting from the original plans instead of whatever GOP fig leaf offer is the right approach, but the reality that their are two Republicans plus a few undercover blue dogs makes me very skeptical.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

So the nine worst Dems and Jon Tester, hey MT elections don’t win themselves, have agreed to a framework devised by venture capitalist who thinks 47% of Americans are parasites Mitt Romney and personal concierge to the Chamber of Commerce Kyrsten Sinema.

I neither hold out any hope that there isn’t some kind of catch here, I’m expecting the no taxes to mean no taxes on important people but lots of broad based regressive consumption tax and significant money stolen from state and local government, nor expect the actual Dems in congress to let this move without their own reconciliation based bill to fix whatever Mittens (hey didn’t we very explicitly not make him president?) is trying to break here.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

https://twitter.com/elwasson/status/1405568124968132612?s=21

But I thought only purity ponies opposed things and very serious moderates took the pragmatic approach and worked with what was on the table.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

https://twitter.com/AdamSerwer/status/1407390313392623623

Wait, you’re telling me the blue ribbon committee chaired by Mitt Romney and Kyrsten Sinema and bankrolled by Joe Lieberman isn’t actually helpful?

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

Here’s the trailer line

“If this is the only thing that comes to me, I’m not signing it,” Mr. Biden said during remarks in the East Room of the White House. “It’s in tandem.”

So yeah, I’m all on board. I still worry about one of the two botching the reconciliation package after the compromise infrastructure package is through, but they have staked so much of their reputations on it that I think it is unlikely.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

A major bipartisan victory like this is hard to come by, so I'm not sure why Democrats want to imperil its chances by tying it to a much more partisan package. They should just pass it now and worry about everything else later.

Because this bipartisan victory only covers a small fraction of what needs to be done (notably childcare and eldercare were left out because something something roads and bridges) and this is the only way to get to habitual traitors to go along.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

Oregon Rep. Kurt Schrader, a member of the fiscally conscious Blue Dog Coalition, said in an interview that he’s planning to vote against a budget resolution that would include reconciliation instructions for trillions of dollars in additional spending. Another moderate House Democrat, who requested anonymity to speak freely about a position that would upset party leaders, said the same.

With those two expected “no” votes, Speaker Nancy Pelosi doesn’t have much more room to maneuver on that first step toward passing a big spending bill, let alone the reconciliation legislation itself that would contain all the details.

https://www.rollcall.com/2021/06/25/some-moderate-democrats-oppose-biden-spending-package-as-progressives-feared/

Schrader is a massive cuckold. I hope the other one isn't Jared Golden.

Well at least Golden is in a Trump district, even if ‘fiscally conservative’ is usually the exact wrong way to campaign.
Schrader is sitting in Oregon 5 which is ‘close’ for Oregon, but Trump never got more than 44% percent there and Biden won by a 10 point spread.
Literally no excuse to be a blue dog.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

It seems the White House is seeing what I predicted in this thread, that the deal may completely collapse and nothing will pass, and is walking back its red line of vetoing the deal without a reconciliation bill.

Joe Biden said the quiet part out loud and paid a price for it.

Reveling in his bipartisan win on infrastructure Thursday, the president declared that he would not sign the deal he’d just endorsed unless a separate bill including his other domestic priorities arrived on his desk, too. Whether deliberate or not, the comment set off a cascade of events in and out of the Oval Office that had aides putting out fires the next day and raised questions about the future of their prized $1 trillion bipartisan deal.

With Republicans threatening to abandon the deal, Steve Ricchetti, one of Biden’s lead negotiators, who a day earlier had been credited by the president for his efforts shepherding the deal, scrambled to contain the fallout on Capitol Hill. Both he and Louisa Terrell, the White House top congressional liaison, told the senators involved in negotiations that Biden was enthusiastic about the deal and would soon hit the road to tout its benefits as well as the merits of bipartisanship.

According to two sources familiar with his efforts, Ricchetti told Republicans that the White House was going to clarify the comments.

A White House official disputed the notion that Ricchetti suggested Biden may have misspoke — an impression that those two sources said was left. The official said that the president’s team anticipated dustups during the early phases of the process and noted that White House press secretary Jen Psaki several times during Friday’s briefing took a softer tone than Biden did on Thursday.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/25/biden-infrastructure-bill-496412

According to two 'sources familiar with Richetti's efforts'.

That means two Republican aides who talked to Politico.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

So has anyone bothered to ask him why? He just pulled a number out of his ass and I’m getting very sick of everything being held hostage by our dimmest people.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/joe-manchin-doubles-down-refusing-204539822.html

Manchin rejects Bernie's inflated 3.5T Reconciliation compromise too expensive

This is not what he said at all


Manchin did not reject 3.5T Reconciliation compromise
He told reporters on Tuesday he would only back an infrastructure package that was fully financed by tax revenue

If anything Manchin comments seem to be implying that he is all for whatever the Dems support as long as they use tax increases in order to make sure that the bill is fully payed for

Wasn’t he also saying he didn’t like tax increases. He’s just flailing for a reason to be concerned and then demand minor changes because Joe Manchin isn’t a bright guy and thinks being a pain is good government.

I’m guessing he’ll pull another last second hold up before giving in on a nominal concession he doesn’t even believe in and go back to patting himself on the back for being brave.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

Wow it’s almost like this whole bipartisan infrastructure bill is an excuse to trick our two dumbest Senators into delaying a reconciliation bill until it passes, which will be never.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

I've said it before and I'll say it again

Republicans are trying to drag this out, I'm sure of it. I do think Portman wants a deal, but I do not think he intended to be finished by the August recess.

The only reason any Republican is workin on it, even if they privately want it, is to take the air out of reconcillation.

The "moderates" know reconcillation will happen. But if they drag this out until Septemeber, maybe Manchin will be less eager for a big budget bill by Oct 1st

That is the plan. That is why Schumer needs to force things out now

This has, I think, been self-evident for a while. The only reason reconciliation isn’t just advancing on it’s own is because Manchin and Sinema want to feed their egos