Congress is currently working through an infrastructure debate. Some Republicans are trying to compromise to keep costs down — Biden initially wanted to blow more than $2 trillion, while the latest bipartisan plan would include only about $600 billion in new spending (plus more by repurposing COVID relief that hasn’t been spent yet). But Democrats are also preparing to go it alone, so they can enact a partisan bill through the filibuster-proof “reconciliation” process if the negotiations fail. Some Democrats hope they can ram through more spending this way even if the negotiations succeed.
The partisan plan they’re working on could cost . . . my God . . . $6 trillion, folks, as has now been confirmed by several media outlets. And Bernie Sanders wants to include an expansion of Medicare down to age 60! Oh no, Republicans had better give in or the spending is going to be enormous!
The taxes would be big too. From Politico:
According to a tentative plan, half of the proposed Democrats-only alternative would be paid for. About $2.5 trillion would go through the Finance Committee, $185 billion through the Energy Committee and almost $500 billion through the Environment and Public Works Committee, one source said, while emphasizing that the discussions are fluid. The dollar amount, however, is likely to shrink as moderates weigh in. At the moment, it appears impossible that all 50 Democrats would get on board with such a large figure. . . .
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) laughed when asked if the $6 trillion number is too high. He said he was “open” to reconciliation but wants increases to the corporate income tax and capital gains to be more modest than as presented by Biden.
Ahhhh, that’s right. Democrats have 50 votes in the Senate, not 70, and thus can’t actually pass off-the-charts insane spending measures that alienate every Democrat with even the slightest sense of fiscal restraint. I forgot.