Manchin says infrastructure plan can work

While the White House works to keep Republicans and progressive Democrats on board, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin remains optimistic about a traditional infrastructure package he helped negotiate last week while preparing to hold the line on spending on human infrastructure.

Speaking by phone Wednesday, Manchin, D-W.Va., said last week’s infrastructure proposal is the largest such plan since the creation of the interstate system more than 70 years ago and the largest investment in U.S. history. President Joe Biden hit the road Tuesday to promote the plan, making a stop in Wisconsin.

“You have a bipartisan agreement with the President of the United States endorsing it and going around the country selling it and how much good it does,” Manchin said. “The public knows that we have just come to an agreement on the largest infrastructure package in our nation’s history.”

The new plan focuses on traditional infrastructure, with $973 billion in spending over five years or $1.209 trillion in spending over eight years, with $579 billion in new spending. The plan is paid for without tax increases, focused on collecting unpaid taxes, using unspent COVID-19 funds from the federal C.A.R.E.S. Act and American Rescue Plan, various user fees, and the economic benefits from the projects themselves.

“This is, by far, the largest in the history that’s paid for with no new taxes, no burden,” Manchin said. “All we do is reap the benefits by repositioning and repurposing with all the money we have in the system. That’s what we’ve done, so I don’t know how anyone at the end of the day could be against it.”

Projects include $312 billion in new spending for transportation projects, including roads and bridges, public safety, mass transportation, passenger and freight rail, electric vehicle infrastructure, transitioning to electric buses, airports, ports and waterways, and infrastructure financing. Another $266 billion in new spending will go towards water infrastructure, broadband expansion, environmental remediation, electric power infrastructure and grid improvements, western water storage, and resiliency.

“Even though it doesn’t fit in maybe the political agenda of my progressive friends in the Democratic caucus, and they might be thinking in the Republican caucus that it’s too much, too far, we haven’t done anything for over three decades in meaningful infrastructure investments,” Manchin said. “We got a lot of Republicans and Democrats — truly more than 20 to 30 Republicans and Democrats — that have had input and know what’s going on and have input to make us get to where we are today. So, I think we have the nucleus now.”

Manchin praised the work of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who led a group of Senate Republicans for nearly two months of negotiations with Biden and White House officials on a bipartisan infrastructure package. Those negotiations broke down earlier this month, but Manchin said the new package negotiated between Manchin, the White House, and more than 20 Republican and Democratic senators builds off of Capito’s negotiations.

“Shelly was negotiating on behalf of her Republican caucus with six other Republicans going to the White House,” Manchin said. “The template that they put together is the template that we used and basically just worked off of.”

The new infrastructure deal nearly came undone hours after it was announced last Thursday when Biden threatened to veto the bill if it came to his desk without a separate deal based on his American Families Plan, a “human infrastructure” proposal that includes tax cuts for working families with children, direct support to middle class and low-income families, and investments in childcare. Biden walked back his veto threat this weekend.

“I gave my word to support the Infrastructure Plan, and that’s what I intend to do,” Biden said. “I intend to pursue the passage of that plan, which Democrats and Republicans agreed to on Thursday, with vigor. It would be good for the economy, good for our country, good for our people. I fully stand behind it without reservation or hesitation.”

“(Biden) made a mistake in what he said,” Manchin said. “You know, we all make mistakes. He clarified that. Now he’s even shown (his commitment) by going out on the road and selling the virtues of how much good is in this infrastructure package.”

While the traditional infrastructure plan — also called the American Jobs Plan — will need 60 votes in the Senate and require at least 10 Republicans to support it, the American Families Plan will likely be pushed through the Senate using the budget reconciliation process that only requires a simple majority. Work on the final price tag is still ongoing on the Senate Budget Committee.

According to Politico, the more progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., wants to see a $6 trillion plan paid for with various tax increases. Manchin has said he thinks the final price tag will be far lower, closer to $2 trillion, paid for by increasing the corporate tax rate to 25 percent. With a national debt of more than $28 trillion that grows by $4 billion per day, Manchin said any package more than $2 trillion would be far too expensive.

“You can’t sustain that spending,” Manchin said. “Some of our friends want $5 trillion or more. I don’t think that that’s going to be a number that we can attain that we’re able to do. On the other hand, like any person in your own home, you look at your revenue stream to figure out what you can afford to invest in and you can pay for over a period of time.”

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