Talks about infrastructure between Joe Biden and Republicans are collapsing

Joe Biden’s bid to reach an agreement with Senate Republicans on a broad infrastructure spending package collapsed Tuesday, narrowing the U.S. president’s options as he tries to move his economic agenda to Congress.

Biden had spent the last few weeks immersed in negotiations with Shelley Moore Capito, the Republican senator from West Virginia, to forge a bipartisan engagement, but the couple suspended talks after failing to reach an agreement.

The breakdown of infrastructure negotiations highlights Biden’s struggle to move forward with his ambitious national legislative agenda beyond the $ 1.9 million stimulus plan approved in March, in a deeply polarized political environment with a strong Republican opposition.

Biden’s $ 2.3 million infrastructure package, along with a $ 1.8 million independent social spending plan, is critical to its hopes of reshaping the post-pandemic U.S. economy by donating in government a more important role in the financing of public goods, from roads to broadband, early childhood education.

The White House and Republicans were divided based on the size and nature of infrastructure investments, as well as how to pay for the plan without adding U.S. budget deficits. Biden had drastically reduced his spending target and had stopped moving forward to raise the corporate income tax rate, but Republicans rejected those offers and made counter-proposals that the White House deemed inappropriate.

“[Biden] offered his thanks to [Capito] for his efforts and conversations in good faith, but expressed disappointment because, while willing to cut his plan by more than $ 1 billion, the Republican group had increased its proposed new investments by just 150,000 million dollars, “Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, said in a statement on the breakdown of talks.

Capito said: “While I appreciate President Biden’s willingness to devote so much time and effort to these negotiations, he finally chose not to accept the very robust and directed infrastructure package and instead end our discussions.” .

The failure of talks between Biden and Capito lays the groundwork for a new round of negotiations between Biden and a bipartisan group of eight moderate senators, including Joe Manchin, West Virginia Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona Democrat Mitt Romney, the Utah Republican and Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican.

The president and lawmakers will try to forge a successful compromise in the coming weeks.

Psaki said Biden would be “in touch” with the group by phone as he traveled to Europe over the next week and had asked assistants such as Steve Richetti, Louisa Terrell and Brian Deese to take charge of the negotiations.

Romney told the Capitol Hill press Tuesday that his group of lawmakers “nailed where we are” before bringing a “solidified” proposal to the larger group of 20 senators.

If these talks also collapse, Biden’s only option would be to try to pass his infrastructure spending bill with purely Democratic votes, but that would be a daunting task given his party’s extremely tight margins in both houses of parliament. Congress.