Break's Over. Will Democrats Act?

By Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Washington Post

06 July 21

he West is now suffering record drought and heat, the most recent measure of the climate catastrophe that is already upon us. Nearly one-fourth of American households lack broadband access. A water main breaks every two minutes. With child-care costs soaring, more than 1 million workers — largely women — have been driven out of the economy, even as the economy reopens. Forty percent of Americans have no wealth at all, while the top 1 percent pockets over 30 percent of the nation’s wealth.

Are Democrats ready to act? That is the critical question as Congress returns from its holiday break. While President Biden is selling the bipartisan infrastructure deal as a “generational investment,” the real effort will come from using the budget reconciliation process to pass vitally needed public investments with Democratic votes only.

For all the focus on Biden’s ability to work across the aisle, the true challenge is whether he and the congressional leadership can work with all Democrats. That test will do much to determine whether the party can retain or increase its majorities in the next election — and whether the country will begin to address the cascading crises that it faces.

Unified Republican opposition is virtually inevitable. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) has already announced that “100% of our focus is on stopping this new administration,” just as he obstructed President Barack Obama. The overwhelming majority of his caucus still marches to his beat.

Even if some Republicans were willing to cooperate, the Republican imprint on the bipartisan infrastructure deal makes it clear just how counterproductive they would be. The Republican negotiators demanded that, even though the needs of the country are far greater than what the president called for, any package to address those problems had to be far smaller. The $579 billion in spending reduces to $116 billion a year, or roughly $2.3 billion per state per year. That won’t come close to addressing what the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates is a $2.5 trillion investment gap in basic infrastructure alone — roads, bridges, water systems, electric grid, etc. (That does not even include other priorities such as upgrading our rail and broadband networks.) Republicans also opposed including investments in climate programs or family infrastructure — paid family leave, child care, child tax credits and the like, so they were largely dropped from the package.

Republicans demanded that the spending be paid for — even though most economists across the political spectrum agree that infrastructure investment will largely pay for itself by stimulating growth and jobs and making the economy more efficient. But the Republican negotiators opposed raising taxes on the rich and the corporations. The result is that the “pay-fors” feature a combination of one-offs — such as sales from the petroleum reserve — and gimmicks. Particularly perverse is what is called “access recycling” — essentially raising money by selling off public works to private interests who will raise fees on users. There is no more effective way to insure that working and poor people get stuck with much of the bill. At least Democrats insisted on giving the IRS more funds to crack down on tax avoidance.

Republican obstruction leaves the responsibility to Democrats. The leader of the Budget Committee, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), is putting together a $6 trillion package that would include the Biden investments in renewable energy, in child care, college and schools, as well as investment in health care — notably reducing the eligibility age of Medicare from 65 to 60 and adding dental, hearing and vision insurance. It would be paid for by raising taxes on the rich and the corporations. The elements of this agenda — investments in renewable energy, day care, paid family leave, making college affordable, the monthly child allowance — all enjoy majority public support. Remarkably, hiking taxes on the rich and the corporations is among the most popular pieces of the package.

But with no margin to spare, the internal Democratic negotiations will be brutal. More conservative House Democrats are already muttering about deficits and inflation. A few moderate Senate Democrats — Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) most notably — have already registered concerns about the size of both the spending and the tax increases. Biden has touted his ability to work across the aisle and celebrated the bipartisan infrastructure agreement. But the real test is whether he can bring Democrats together to address these challenges. The stakes could not be higher.