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President Joe Biden on Thursday said he was optimistic about cutting a deal on infrastructure with Republicans, and told reporters more talks are planned on the issue.
In a brief question-and-answer session after a COVID-related announcement, Biden said he’d had a “very, very good meeting” with a group of GOP senators. He said he was “very optimistic that we can reach a reasonable agreement” on infrastructure and that the Republicans would present him with a new offer next week.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and five of her fellow Republicans met with Biden in the Oval Office. Capito and other Senate Republicans have proposed a plan to spend $568 billion over five years on roads, bridges, highways and other public-works projects. That is well below the $2.3 trillion package Biden has unveiled.
Opinion: Biden’s infrastructure plan has hit some potholes
After the meeting Capito described it as “very productive, more than courteous give and take,” and said they talked specifics.
Biden’s infrastructure
PAVE,
plan calls for raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% — though he has recently suggested he could accept a 25% rate.
Paying for roads, bridges and other infrastructure with tax increases has hit a wall with Republicans, as the Senate’s top GOP lawmaker underscored Wednesday.
“We’re not interested in re-opening the 2017 tax bill,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said Wednesday after meeting Biden. “That is a red line,” he said, standing alongside House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who was also in the Oval Office meeting with Biden and top Democrats.
Now read: McConnell says tax increases a ‘red line’ in infrastructure talks with Biden
Biden said after the Wednesday meeting that he was “encouraged” by his talks with the leaders, and said he believes there’s “room to have a compromise on a bipartisan bill.”
In addition to Capito, GOP Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Roger Wicker of Mississippi joined the meeting at the White House on Thursday.
U.S. stocks
DJIA,
bounced back on Thursday to end sharply higher, taking back a chunk of the losses suffered in the previous session.
