The big infrastructure plan is settled?Biden announces an agreement with a bipartisan group of senators

The Financial Associated Press (Shanghai Editor Xia Junxiong) reported that on Thursday, local time, US President Biden announced that he had agreed to the infrastructure plan proposed by the bipartisan group of senators. According to media reports, the total cost of the program is US$1.2 trillion, over an 8-year period, and includes approximately US$559 billion in new expenditures.

Biden said that the new infrastructure plan does not include the “American Family Plan” he had previously proposed. According to Biden’s previous vision, the “American Family Plan” requires the federal government to increase spending by $1.8 trillion on education, childcare, and other priorities.

It is worth mentioning that the infrastructure plan proposed by the bipartisan senator group does not include the increase of new taxes, and this is one of the biggest conflicts between the two parties. Biden first proposed a US$2.3 trillion infrastructure plan. He said at the time that he would raise the tax rate for the wealthy to pay for the huge expenditures of the infrastructure plan. This move has met with strong opposition from the Republican Party. The Republican Party has repeatedly stated that the tax rate is an insurmountable red line in the Republican negotiation process.

The bipartisan group of senators has 21 members, including 11 Republican senators and 10 Democratic senators. One of the panelists, Republican Senator Rob Portman, said that after a compromise, the two parties reached a plan that satisfies both parties. Both the Republicans and Democrats promised to end this matter as soon as possible.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell heard a briefing on the new plan that day, but he has not yet indicated whether he will support the plan. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said that he is very happy to see an agreement between the two sides, but he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have yet to see the details of the new infrastructure plan.

Schumer warned that if there is no supporting plan to solve social problems such as family health care, the $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan will not get enough Democratic votes.