The Infrastructure Thread (formerly BI: America's infrastructure is decaying)

[China]

Moderates vow to block budget to secure infrastructure funding

 

A group of House moderates is throwing a wrench in the Democrats' two-prong economic agenda, threatening to block a multitrillion-dollar budget bill until party leaders enact the Senate's bipartisan infrastructure package, according to a letter obtained by The Hill.

 

Behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Democrats had intended to return to Washington the week of Aug. 23, interrupting their long summer recess in order to pass the budget blueprint, which was approved by the Senate on Wednesday.

 

That budget resolution authorizes Democrats to begin crafting their $3.5 trillion package of economic priorities — including an expansion of social safety net programs, health care coverage, immigrant rights and environmental protections — which is expected to be considered by both chambers in the fall.

 

Only afterward, Pelosi has said, will the House vote on the Senate's $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which was also passed by the upper chamber earlier this week.

 

A group of nine moderate Democrats, however, have another design in mind.

 

In the letter to be sent to Pelosi on Friday, the centrist lawmakers maintain that their districts simply can't wait for the infrastructure spending to go out the door. They're demanding that the Senate's bipartisan bill be adopted this month, or they won't support the budget resolution — a threat with real teeth given the Democrats' slim House majority and the Republicans' unanimous opposition to the Senate's budget bill.

 

“The country is clamoring for infrastructure investment and commonsense, bipartisan solutions," reads the letter. "With the livelihoods of hardworking American families at stake, we simply can’t afford months of unnecessary delays and risk squandering this one-in-a-century, bipartisan infrastructure package. It’s time to get shovels in the ground and people to work.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

GOP seeks to keep spotlight on Afghanistan as Dems advance Biden's $3.5T spending plan

 

Democrats are aiming to turn the page and focus on advancing President Biden’s domestic agenda this month — but Republicans will be doing everything they can to keep the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in the spotlight. 

 

Republicans are planning to offer amendments related to Afghanistan as Democratic-led committees work to mark up the components of the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill to expand social safety net programs over the next few weeks.  

 

“We must exert maximum pressure on the Democrat majority with our amendments and debate during these committee sessions,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) wrote in a missive to Republicans.

 

The GOP attempts to keep the focus on Afghanistan comes as Democrats will have to work on overcoming divisions of their own over the scope of the massive legislation and how to pay for it as they work to deliver a much-needed policy win for their party.  

 

The strategy was on full display Thursday as the first two House committees, Oversight and Reform as well as Natural Resources, considered their respective portions of the reconciliation package that will later be consolidated into one all-encompassing bill. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Larry]

Benghazi!!!!!!

[China]

 

[Larry]

Wouldn't want to stimulate the economy, and have an issues based campaign. 

[Momma There Goes That Man]

Is this where we are told Manchin is just stomping his feet to boost his moderate bonafides and will eventually vote yes on it? 
 

i don’t see it 

[tshile]

The inability of democrats to get on the same page and not look like a disorganized mess is just amazing. 
 

the republicans seem to be able to do whatever they want with a slim majority. Hell they manage to get what they want with a minority often. 
 

 

[Ball Security]

29 minutes ago, tshile said:

The inability of democrats to get on the same page and not look like a disorganized mess is just amazing. 
 

the republicans seem to be able to do whatever they want with a slim majority. Hell they manage to get what they want with a minority often. 
 

 

Like when they repealed and replaced Obamacare with a better solution like they told me they would in 2016?

[tshile]

1 hour ago, Ball Security said:

Like when they repealed and replaced Obamacare with a better solution like they told me they would in 2016?

?

 

did you think the republicans actually wanted to do that? They’d rather sabotage it and use it every election to rile up the base. 
 

they don’t have a plan cause they don’t want to own how bad healthcare is. They’d rather let the Dems own in. 

[Larry]

4 hours ago, tshile said:

The inability of democrats to get on the same page and not look like a disorganized mess is just amazing. 

 

I am not a member of any organized political party.  I, sir, am a Democrat.  

 

 - Will Rogers.  

 

[China]

Democrats look to hike taxes on the rich and corporations to pay for $3.5 trillion budget bill

 

House Democrats want to increase taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations to pay for their sweeping $3.5 trillion budget package.

 

President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats have long made it clear that they intend to pay for their wish-list by raising taxes on the rich and big businesses. But lawmakers have not previously provided details on what that would entail.

The draft proposal, which could still change before it is expected to be officially released Monday, calls for increasing the top marginal rate on individuals to 39.6%, up from the 37% rate set by the Republicans' 2017 tax cut law, according to a plan circulating Sunday and obtained by CNN.

The rate would apply to individuals with taxable income over $400,000 a year and married couples filing jointly earning over $450,000 annually.

The top capital gains rate would increase to 25%, from 20%.

In addition, lawmakers would slap a 3% surtax on individuals with adjusted gross incomes in excess of $5 million.

And it would broaden the net investment income tax to cover net income derived in the ordinary course of a trade or business for single taxpayers with greater than $400,000 in taxable income or joint filers with earnings greater than $500,000.

Currently, as part of the Affordable Care Act, some higher-income Americans are subject to an additional 3.8% Medicare tax on certain investment income and an 0.9% Medicare surcharge on wages.

Altogether, the additional levies on high-income individuals would raise approximately $1 trillion. Biden has promised that those earning below $400,000 a year would not see a tax hike.

The proposal also calls for increasing the top corporate tax rate to 26.5%, up from the current 21% set by the Republicans' 2017 tax cut law. It would only apply to businesses with income in excess of $5 million.

Biden had called for hiking the corporate rate to 28% to pay for his economic recovery agenda. Prior to the 2017 law, the top rate was 35%.

And the House proposal would raise the minimum tax on foreign earnings of US companies to 16.5%, from the current 10.5%. Biden had suggested pushing it up to 21%.

The plan would also increase a variety of other taxes on the wealthy and businesses, among other measures, including modifying rules involving cryptocurrency transactions.

It would also give the Internal Revenue Service an additional $80 billion over the next 10 years for tax enforcement of high-income Americans, which the Congressional Budget Office estimated could raise $200 billion. And the proposal projects it would raise an additional $700 billion by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices and eliminating a controversial drug rebate rule enacted by the Trump administration.

All told, the measures would raise an estimated $2.9 trillion, though the plan cautions that "this number remains very preliminary." When combined with an estimated $600 billion in dynamic revenue growth estimated by the White House, the proposal would fully offset the cost of the Democrats' budget package, according to the drafters.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Dana Bash asked Joe Manchin 7 times how much the budget bill should cost. He never answered.

 

Here's what Joe Manchin knows: There's no way, no how, that he is voting for the proposed $3.5 trillion spending bill being pushed by Senate Democrats.

 

Here's what Joe Manchin appears to have no clue about: What size spending bill he would vote for.

This exchange, which is long but worth it, between CNN's Dana Bash and the West Virginia Democratic Senator on Sunday is illustrative of both of those points:

 

Click on the link for the interview

[China]

Biden to meet with Sinema, Manchin on Wednesday on $3.5T spending plan

 

President Biden will meet separately Wednesday with Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to hear their concerns about Democrats’ plans to pass a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package, according to sources familiar with the plans.

 

The meetings will take place at the White House and show that Biden is becoming more personally involved after taking a relatively hands-off approach to the debate over the Democratic reconciliation package.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Momma There Goes That Man]

It’s a lost cause. Stick a fork in it. Biden pulls this reconciliation bill off without watering it down to nothing, he will cement his name among the most impactful presidents in history 

[88Comrade2000]

34 minutes ago, Momma There Goes That Man said:

It’s a lost cause. Stick a fork in it. Biden pulls this reconciliation bill off without watering it down to nothing, he will cement his name among the most impactful presidents in history 

What are odds he does though?

[Momma There Goes That Man]

Just now, Rdskns2000 said:

What are odds he does though?

[88Comrade2000]

I said the biggest threat to Biden getting anything done wasn’t the gop, you knew they would oppose everything Biden does. It would be from his own party because the Dems really aren’t United. Their big tent is incompatible with each other.  
 

Joe and Karen should just make the switch to the gop. Frankly, so should house members who agree. They are out of step with the modern Dem party and are closer to the pretrump gop.

[China]

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

 

Progressives say they plan to vote against bipartisan infrastructure bill next week

 

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is standing by her claim that her members will not vote for the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill without passing the $3.5 trillion package that is aimed at enacting President Joe Biden's economic agenda.

 

To those who think progressives are bluffing about voting down the bipartisan package, Jayapal told reporters Tuesday, "Try us."

The Washington state Democrat made the remarks after meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who can only afford to lose a handful of votes in order to pass anything through the narrowly divided chamber. The talks come at a crucial moment for Democrats in control of Congress and the White House as Capitol Hill faces a self-imposed September 27 deadline to pass the bipartisan deal, as well as a separate, looming threat of the government shutting down at the end of the month and raising the nation's borrowing limit in the coming weeks.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

These Republicans helped craft the infrastructure bill. They might not vote for it.

 

A motley gang of deal-making House Republicans took partial credit for pushing through President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan this summer. That doesn’t mean they’ll all vote for it.

 

The roughly 50-member centrist group, dubbed the Problem Solvers Caucus, wedged its way into this summer's multitrillion-dollar talks between Biden and some like-minded Senate Republicans. While the group's exact role in prying loose a Senate compromise is up for debate, many of those House members, including Republicans, claimed a critical role.

 

Democrats — and even some Republicans — in the group are now pleading with their GOP counterparts to ignore a robust whipping operation by their own party and back the infrastructure bill on the floor Monday.

 

And it's not just the infrastructure bill that could be in jeopardy if those GOP votes don't appear on the floor next week, with a group of progressives still warning they’ll block the bill without more concessions on a broader, partisan spending package. The Problem Solvers Caucus itself is facing a critical test of survival in the messy floor fight over Biden's deal. And there could hardly be a more glaring example of the group’s mission than a roads-and-bridges funding bill blessed by both the Democratic president and the Senate GOP leader.

 

“This bipartisan infrastructure bill was essentially a Problem Solvers product,” said Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), a member of the coalition strongly urging their colleagues to back the bill. “It would not be an argument in favor of bipartisanship for the Republicans who are part of that [bill] to turn their backs on it now.”

 

Roughly 10 Republicans are expected to vote for the infrastructure deal, nearly all of them Problem Solvers members, according to lawmakers in both parties who are keeping an informal whip count. But that precise number remains in flux amid uncertain Democratic dynamics.

 

Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) put his decision to vote yes bluntly: “I helped write it.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Almost half a million US households lack indoor plumbing: ‘The conditions are inhumane’

 

Yan Yu Lin and her seven-year-old daughter live in a tight studio in San Francisco’s Chinatown, in a century-old building where 60 or so residents on each floor share a bathroom.

 

Along the back wall of the room is a plastic potty – the kind designed for toilet training toddlers. The shared bathrooms are out of order so often, so rank and unhygienic, that Lin has her daughter use the plastic potty instead. “It’s safer,” she said.

 

This Dickensian-sounding living situation is more common in the US than most would think.

 

Almost half a million American households lack basic indoor plumbing, with renters and people of color in some of the country’s wealthiest and fastest growing cities most likely to be living without running water or flushing toilets, new research reveals.

 

While some rural and indigenous communities have never had indoor plumbing, the vast majority of unplumbed Americans are in fact found in urban areas, with one in three affected households living in just 15 cities, according to research by the Plumbing Poverty Project (PPP), a collaboration between King’s College London (KCL) and the University of Arizona.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[LD0506]

[China]

 

Flood-Threat Assessment Finds Danger Goes Far Beyond U.S. Homes

 

If the floods don’t get you, lack of electricity or a swamped hospital might.

 

Nearly a quarter of U.S. critical infrastructure—utilities, airports, police stations and more—is at risk of being inundated by flooding, according to a new report by First Street Foundation, a Brooklyn nonprofit dedicated to making climate risk more visible to the public.

 

Around 25% of national critical infrastructure is at risk

 

Roughly 14% of Americans’ properties face direct risk from major storms, but the study shows danger extends far from those property lines.

 

Click on the link for the full article including graphics

[Momma There Goes That Man]

 

[Renegade7]

Baby steps, I guess, certainly not what I voted for.  

[EmirOfShmo]

18 minutes ago, Renegade7 said:

Baby steps, I guess, certainly not what I voted for.  

Agree but they got to get this passed soon. Like any project: Original Contract $150B ..Change Order $250B