Infrastructure Week dies — again
‘There wasn’t going to be a $2 trillion deal anyway,’ Republican Rep. Sam Graves said.
Politico.com
By KATHRYN A. WOLFE and TANYA SNYDER
Updated 05/22/2019 08:53 PM EDT
So much for Infrastructure Week.
Hopes for a grand $2 trillion infrastructure deal were rapidly vanishing even before Wednesday’s White House meeting between President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats blew up in a cloud of recriminations.
One big reason: Neither party has offered a serious way to pay for one.
Not Trump, who put out a $1.5 billion proposal 15 months ago that would have laid the burden on states, cities, private investors and politically unpalatable federal budget cuts. But also not the Democratic leaders, whose 35-page plan from a year ago would rely on reversing Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy — a non-starter for the GOP.
Meanwhile, prospects House lawmakers would meet even their own target of getting an infrastructure bill onto the floor before the August recess — the unofficial deadline for achieving serious legislation before the 2020 election season consumes the Capitol — have been fading fast... FULL ARTICLE
Posted on Wed, May 22, 2019
by John Cox