It's been a hectic week with that infrastructure bill. Just a few short hours after President Joe Biden appeared at a press conference with senators from all sides of the aisle to announce the deal, he signaled he was tying what was supposed to be a bipartisan infrastructure bill with the partisan budget reconciliation, which Reagan and I both covered.
Now, however, he appears to be changing his tune. On Saturday afternoon, the White released a "Statement by President Joe Biden on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework."
The statement in part read:
At a press conference after announcing the bipartisan agreement, I indicated that I would refuse to sign the infrastructure bill if it was sent to me without my Families Plan and other priorities, including clean energy. That statement understandably upset some Republicans, who do not see the two plans as linked; they are hoping to defeat my Families Plan—and do not want their support for the infrastructure plan to be seen as aiding passage of the Families Plan. My comments also created the impression that I was issuing a veto threat on the very plan I had just agreed to, which was certainly not my intent.
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Some other Democrats have said they might oppose the Infrastructure Plan because it omits items they think are important: that is a mistake, in my view. Some Republicans now say that they might oppose the infrastructure plan because I am also trying to pass the American Families Plan: that is also a mistake, in my view. I intend to work hard to get both of them passed, because our country needs both—and I ran a winning campaign for President that promised to deliver on both. No one should be surprised that that is precisely what I am doing.
I will ask Leader Schumer to schedule both the infrastructure plan and the reconciliation bill for action in the Senate. I expect both to go to the House, where I will work with Speaker Pelosi on the path forward after Senate action. Ultimately, I am confident that Congress will get both to my desk, so I can sign each bill promptly.
The statement is full of the president patting himself on the back as well as him slamming Republicans. In trying to sell the American Families Plan, Biden claimed it "has broad support with the American people, but not among Republicans in Congress."
Nobody can blame those who reacted to the news that Biden was tying legislation together, especially since Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said the same thing. If this wasn't what Biden was implying, what was he implying, then?
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