White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain on Thursday refused to say if Democrats would try to pass President Joe Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure plan through reconciliation, potentially evading the Senate's 60-vote threshold to avoid filibuster.
Klain spoke to Politico Playbook in a virtual interview.
"Look, I think what we want to do is get this passed," Klain said. "And I think that starts with a conversation with a broad array of members in both parties to see where the support is [and] how this looks as we move it through the process. That’s our first goal."
Reconciliation is a complicated budgetary maneuver that would allow Senate Democrats to pass Biden’s infrastructure plan with a simple majority in the chamber, Politico reported.
Klain spoke a day after Biden unveiled his $2 trillion spending plan for infrastructure improvements, to be paid for by an accompanying hike in corporate taxes. He touted the package as a "once-in-a-generation" opportunity just weeks after Democrats passed a bill with nearly $2 trillion worth of spending that was sold as coronavirus relief.
For the infrastructure plan, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was preparing to revisit the reconciliation tool that allowed Democrats to approve the $1.9 trillion relief package without Republican support last month.
Klain refused to comment on whether the White House already had determined it would seek to bypass the filibuster.
"[I'm] not going to get into legislative tactics today," he said.
"We just launched this plan yesterday. Congress is out of session. We’re going to start to bring members down here physically ... after this Easter break and talk to Congress — talk to members of the House and Senate, Democrats, Republicans about how they want to move forward. We want to move forward, if it’s at all possible, on a bipartisan basis, and I think there’s some hope for that."
Biden's plan included spending on roads, bridges, and transit, as well as what Democrats say will be expanded access to clean water, broadband, and elder and disability care.
"Look, I think these are national needs," Klain said. "And as the president has said, people have to decide if they’re going to deliver or divide. And we intend to deliver. And when I talk to Republicans, I see that they want to deliver, too."
To pay for the legislation, the administration has proposed a rewrite of the corporate tax code. The proposal wants businesses to pay 28%, an increase from 21%.
Republican lawmakers have slammed Biden's effort to reverse the corporate component of former President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts.
Progressive Democrats want the infrastructure plan to go further, such as including more climate friendly initiatives.
Klain indicated the White House would not be deterred by congressional criticism.
"In the end, let me be clear: The president was elected to do a job," he said. "And part of that job is to get this country ready to win the future. That's what he's going to do."
Trump blasted Biden's proposal, saying it was "a massive giveaway to China, and many other countries."
"Biden’s policy would break the back of the American Worker with among the highest business tax rates in the developed world," Trump said in a statement. "Under Biden’s plan, if you create jobs in America, and hire American workers, you will pay MORE in taxes — but if you close down your factories in Ohio and Michigan, fire U.S. workers, and move all your production to Beijing and Shanghai, you will pay LESS. It is the exact OPPOSITE of putting America First—it is putting America LAST!"
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