GOP Senator leader Mitch McConnell: "One hundred percent of my focus is on stopping this new administration." Like this for example. And, yeah, well... hang down your head, Tom Dooley, if that comes as any kind of a surprise.
Yesterday, Biden offered to negotiate the corporate tax hike he proposed (28%) but the GOP isn't interested in compromising-- just in killing it. And why should they when they have putative Dems like Joe Manchin from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party forcing Biden to back down while McConnell prances around with remarks like his 100% obstruction declaration. Manchin and his allies have already insisted that the rate not be the pre-Trump 35% rate that progressives want or the 28% Biden suggested but just 25%, which isn't close to enough for Biden to be able to pay for his popular infrastructure plan.
McConnell already said every single Republican will vote again the bill anyway. Conservative Democrats like Manchin and any of the Republicans contemplating maybe working with the Democrats, want it paid for with regressive taxes like sales taxes and a VAT that would fall most heavily on the working and middle class.
Biden, yesterday: "We’re not going to deprive any of these executives of their second or third home, travel privately by jet. It’s not going to affect their standard of living at all, not a little tiny bit. But I can affect the standard of living of the people that I grew up with, if they have a job... I’m going to have to be able to explain this and I’m going to keep banging on it. This is about making the average multimillionaire pay just a fair share. It’s not going to affect their standard of living a little bit."
Biden has two paths to being able to get this done: persuade Manchin that the Republicans aren't serious about negotiating-- which McConnell's statement and behavior should have already done-- or convincing one of the persuadable Republicans to cross the aisle, and that might be Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski or... well, there really isn't anyone else. I guess Rob Portman (R-OH) or Pat Toomey could, since they're both retiring... but there isn't a testicle between the two of them.
What about Roy Blunt? He's up retiring from the Senate next year, doesn't have to worry about being harassed by Trump and he sometimes tries to pretend he's bipartisan. I asked Lucas Kunce, the former Marine officer and populist Democrat running for that Missouri seat, in the hopes of enacting a Marshall Plan for the Midwest, how he's going to get Republicans to buy in on that idea. Today Kunce told me that "For decades, everyday people have seen factories close, jobs shipped overseas, and family farms put out of business by multinational corporations. I'm telling voters-- no matter their party-- that our Marshall Plan for the Midwest is about creating jobs they can count on now and for generations to come in renewable energy. I'd like to see any Republican or Democrat in the U.S. Senate try to explain why printing billions a month for Wall Street or spending trillions more on forever wars for oil is a better deal."