The Week
Republicans call for narrower infrastructure plan, while progressives think Biden hasn’t gone far enough
On Sunday, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that he thinks President Biden’s infrastructure plan would be a layup for the White House if it was scaled back. “I’ve reached out to the White House a couple of times now and said, ‘You’ve got an easy bipartisan win here if you keep this package narrowly focused on infrastructure,'” he said. “And then the other 70 or so percent of the package that doesn’t have much to do with infrastructure, if you want to force that in a partisan way, you could still do that. Why would you pass up the opportunity here to focus on roads, bridges … broadband, all of which wouldn’t be 40 percent of this package.” On Pres. Biden’s infrastructure proposal, Sen. Roy Blunt says he has reached out to the White House “a couple of times,” and told them they have “an easy bipartisan win” if they keep it narrowly focused on infrastructure. https://t.co/CUnm2Taxvk pic.twitter.com/qJQNgJL0jo — This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 4, 2021 But while Republicans, who are already prepared to reject the bill in its current form, want a streamlined version, progressive Democrats, though generally supportive of the framework, don’t think Biden has gone far enough yet. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), for example, said Sunday that he believes another $30 billion would be needed to “fully address” America’s affordable housing crisis. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) added that “we’re probably going to want to put more” money into addressing climate change, and he specifically mentioned health care and making college more affordable as two other areas where “a lot of work has to be done.” More stories from theweek.comThe female price of male pleasureBiden economist acknowledges ‘cost’ to MLB’s decision to pull All-Star game from Atlanta, but says that’s the pointBiden’s lose-lose immigration strategy
