White House gives GOP 1 week to reach deal on infrastructure

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By HOPE YEN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday time is running short for a bipartisan deal on infrastructure, indicating that President Joe Biden will look to act without Republican support if there is no consensus when Congress returns from its Memorial Day break.

“By the time that they return, which is June 7, just a week from tomorrow, we need a clear direction,” Buttigieg said. “The president keeps saying inaction is not an option. And time is not unlimited here.” He said the American people “expect us to do something.”

Biden plans to meet with lead Republican negotiator, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, this coming week and says he remains open to hearing from other GOP senators who are working on different proposals. But Biden has been eying the dwindling timeline for a deal, with an early June hearing scheduled on a House transportation bill that is widely seen as a building block for the big package he favors.

Democratic senators also plan on moving forward on a sweeping infrastructure package “with or without the support of Republican senators,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote to Democrats on Friday. Biden had originally set a Memorial Day deadline for reaching a deal before he let that deadline slip back.



Construction project manager Gabrielle Ferro, second right, speaks with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, during a tour of an underground tunnel for the expansion of the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport plane train tunnel at the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Friday, May 21, 2021, in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-government-and-politics-2829f043cf332e9e61fc5281790d51ec

[groundloop]

1. Will Democrats have Manchin's permission to do this?

[Marthe48]

2. I hope manchin will understand

there is no bipartisanship in the Senate. After the fiasco over the commission, who can't see that r's will not work for the U.S.?

The Dems have to do what they can do on their own. Once the infrastructure plan is passed, the r's will once again take credit for something they didn't work on or pass, but it'll be done.

[WVreaper]

3. Either get on the bus

or get the f**k out of the way.

[onetexan]

17. +1 K&R

[cstanleytech]

4. One way that might get more Republicans on board is the threat of cutting their states out from it

and maybe reducing other federal spending in their states as well.

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

6. I like the idea

And heard this same thing pitched last week on the Sirius XM Progressive Channel

[dsc]

7. except the most persuadable senators, for the most part, come from states with split delegations

PA, ME, WI, OH come to mind, or have seats which will be open and up NC for example.

[PSPS]

11. No, let those voters benefit and then tell them that the senator they elected tried to stop it.

[cstanleytech]

12. If that worked then we would not have to struggle in the welfare red states.

No, I think cutting them off and then telling the people in those states why they lost federal jobs and or other additional assistance might be the route we are going to have to take if we want to start gaining in the deeper red states.

[CrispyQ]

16. Doesn't work. Remember how many hated Obamacare but loved the ACA? -nt

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

5. Good

[Calista241]

8. If they're negotiating in good faith, I can't see an arbitrary deadline like that making it.

Nancy Pelosi predicted passage by the end of June, and we're well short of that.

Every single Dem will need to support a reconciliation bill, and if they're really legit negotiating, I can't see Manchin or any other 'moderate' Senator going along with freezing them out. I'd even include people like Warner, Durbin, Hickenlooper and Kelly into a group that would much prefer a bipartisan bill over a reconciliation effort.

One of the problems with this is it will immediately focus the media on the infrastructure bill when everyone gets back from Memorial Day. I'd rather them excoriate the Repubs for filibustering the Jan 6th commission for at least a day or two.

[Salviati]

13. Why on earth do you believe that they are negotiating in good faith?

After the shit they pulled with the Jan. 6 commission? After the shit they pulled with the ACA?

They're just wasting time, nothing more.

[Calista241]

14. It doesn't matter what i think.

It matters what Manchin, Sinema and other Senators that want to see a bi-partisan bill think.

Do i think we’ll get 100% of Repubs to support a bill, hell no. Do i think we can get 15-20 Repubs to support a bill? Under the right circumstances, yes.

[monkeyman1]

9. republican offer will be $.02 on the dollar. moscow mcmitch -we can't afford it !!!

[Chainfire]

10. Negotiating with Republicans means folding.

It is like trying to make a deal with the devil, in the end you get burned.

Shove it down their damn throats. If not now, when?

[Hotler]

15. Translation White House still trying to play nice with the repugs. nt

[maxsolomon]

18. whittle it down, remove key areas that the GOP fears,

the way legislation normally got strangled in the crib back when the Senate "worked".

worth a shot, i guess.

why anyone believes mcconnell has any reason to give biden a win is beyond me.