Infrastructure Talks Headed for a Crack-Up?

By Yuval Rosenberg

Infrastructure Talks Headed for a Crack-Up?

The nation’s infrastructure is crumbling and so are the
Washington talks about fixing it.

CNN’s Phil Mattingly and Lauren Fox
report that the talks are “on the brink of falling
apart completely” after Republicans balked at a
scaled-back proposal that Biden’s negotiators
submitted on Friday, with a price tag of $1.7 trillion, down from
an original $2.25 trillion. Republicans said that the offer was
still too large to pass on a bipartisan basis and they criticized
some of the White House changes as accounting gimmicks.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
told CNN on Monday that the two sides have moved
closer, but “there is still a lot of daylight between us.” The two
sides are more than a trillion dollars apart, don’t agree on how to
pay for whatever they spend — and they still can’t even settle on a
definition of infrastructure.

“We, Republicans, tend to define infrastructure in terms of
roads, bridges, seaports and airports and broadband. The Democratic
definition seems to include social programs that have never been
considered part of core infrastructure,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)

told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “I was glad that
the president put a counteroffer on the table, but if you look
closely at it, what he's proposing to do is move a lot of the
spending to a bill that's already on the Senate floor, the Endless
Frontier's bill.”

So, yeah, a lot of daylight.

The White House proposal reduced the amount requested for roads,
bridges and physical infrastructure projects from $159 billion to
$120 billion, still well above the $48 billion Republicans had
proposed. It also cut funding for broadband to the GOP’s proposed
level of $65 billion and proposed shifting investments in research
and development, supply chains and manufacturing to other
legislation, as Collins mentioned.

The Biden administration also said that the Republican offer was
no more than $225 billion “above current levels Congress has
traditionally funded” and laid out nine areas Republicans would
need to include or spend more on, including $400 billion to support
caregivers and home health workers. And it still sought to pay for
the new spending via tax increases, which Republicans have called a
nonstarter.

What’s next: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said
Monday that the ball was now in the GOP’s court. “We’re eager to
see their proposal and see what they have to offer,” she said, “and
I think it doesn’t take anything more than simple math to note that
if we came down by $550 billion and they came up by $50 billion,
they have a ways more to go.”

The White House reportedly isn’t certain that Republicans will
make a counteroffer but hopes to have a meeting as soon as
Wednesday if one does come.

Biden’s Memorial Day deadline is likely to pass without any
deal, or major progress toward one. The talks could continue, but
that may depend on what happens this week. "He wants a deal. He
wants it soon, but if there's meaningful negotiations taking place
in a bipartisan manner, he's willing to let that play out," Cedric
Richmond, a White House senior adviser, told CNN, referring to
Biden, on Sunday. "But again, he will not let inaction be the
answer. And when he gets to the point where it looks like that is
inevitable, you'll see him change course."

Some Democratic lawmakers continue to press the White House to
move ahead without Republicans. Doing so would require Biden to
have the support of almost every House Democrat and all 50 Senate
Democrats.

Conservatives Take Aim at Biden Plan to Bolster IRS

Conservative political groups are launching public relations
campaigns to oppose President Biden’s call for a revitalization of
the IRS and the tax hikes that would help fund it, Politico’s Anita
Kumar reports.

The newly formed Coalition to Protect American Workers, run by
Vice President Mike Pence’s former chief of staff, Marc Short, is
producing TV ads and social media messaging critical of Biden’s
plan to expand the IRS by 87,000 workers over the next decade, with
the goal of cracking down on tax cheats.

One TV ad attempts to play on fears of an expanded tax agency.
“If Joe Biden gets his way, they are coming: IRS agents,” a
voiceover says, according to
Politico. “Biden's massive tax increase plan
includes a staggering $80 billion to help recruit an army of IRS
agents.”

Another anti-tax group, Americans for Tax Reform, is saying that
Biden’s plan for the IRS will simply increase union dues paid by
IRS workers, while Heritage Action for America is repeating its
call for a simpler tax code that requires less enforcement.

The White House, though, continues to push for Biden’s
plan, citing poll data that shows broad support among the public
for tax increases on the rich and for efforts by the IRS to crack
down on cheaters. “A massive, bipartisan, majority of the American
people support making the richest Americans and biggest
corporations pay the taxes they owe — without increasing the rate
of audits on any people or small business owners earning less than
$400,000 a year — so we can use that money to invest in the middle
class,” White House spokesperson Mike Gwin told Politico. “A few
special interest-funded ads won’t change that fact or a single
mind.”

Number of the Day: $634 Billion

Maintaining America’s nuclear arsenal will cost $634 billion
over 10 years, according to a
report published Monday by the Congressional
Budget Office. The projected cost is $140 billion, or 28%, higher
that CBO’s previous estimate, which covered 2019-2028. About half
of the increase is the result of the timeframe shifting to include
“two later (and more expensive) years of development in nuclear
modernization programs,” CBO said.

The estimate includes $83 billion in projected cost overruns,
based on rates that costs for similar programs have grown in the
past, CBO said.

The Hill’s Rebecca Kheel
notes that the United States is in the midst of
plans to modernize all three legs of the nuclear triad — air, sea
and land — that the Government Accountability Office has projected
could cost $1.7 trillion over 30 years.

Biden Doubles Funding to Prepare for Extreme Weather

President Biden announced Monday that he will increase federal
spending for extreme weather preparation by $500 million, doubling
the budget of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities
program to $1 billion.

The program helps communities prepare for natural disasters,
including hurricanes and wildfires.

Biden also said that he had directed NASA to collect more
detailed information on weather patterns.

“We’re going to spare no expense, no effort to keep Americans
safe and respond to crises when they arise, and they certainly
will,” Biden said. “Now is the time to get ready for the busiest
time of the year for disasters in America. Hurricane season in the
South and East, and the fire season out West.”

A major reversal: Biden’s move signals a significant
change in attitude toward climate change at the federal level.
Former President Donald Trump expressed doubts about global warming
and questioned the validity of climate science.

But the science of global warming has become increasingly clear,
as has the cost of extreme weather events associated with it.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
the U.S. saw a record number of billion-dollar disasters last year,
with 22 events causing $95 billion worth of damage.

Former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Brock Long

told The Washington Post that Biden’s increase in
funding for preparation was a good first step, but the problem is
enormous.

“We’re stuck in this unsustainable disaster-recovery
cycle. We’re putting out massive amounts of money to help
communities recover, instead of preparing for disasters,” Long
said. “While I applaud the increase in funding, providing $1
billion to mitigating our nation’s infrastructure is just
scratching the surface.”

23 States Cutting Off Enhanced Unemployment Benefits Early

Florida is the 23rd state to announce that it is ending the $300
per week boost to unemployment benefits provided by the federal
government. The payments will end on June 26, about 10 weeks before
the program is set to expire at the federal level, the state said
Monday.

All 23 states withdrawing from the program are led by Republican
governors, who say that the extra payments are responsible for slow
employment growth in their states by making it easier for
unemployed workers to turn down or avoid getting new jobs,
resulting in a labor shortage, especially in low-wage sectors.

“Transitioning away from this benefit will help meet the demands
of small and large businesses who are ready to hire and expand
their workforce,” Dane Eagle, secretary of Florida’s Department of
Economic Opportunity,
said.

However, many labor experts say the enhanced unemployment
benefits play only a limited role in the disappointing job growth
in recent weeks, while citing a host of other factors including
severe job market dislocation, fears of illness and unresolved
child care issues.

Florida’s announcement leaves just four states led by Republican
governors – Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska and Vermont – to
retain the program.

All told, about 4 million people will be affected by the
states’ decisions to end the program prematurely in June. According
to data from the
Century Foundation, the collective loss of
benefits in the 23 states will come to roughly $27.3
billion.

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