Monday, 03 May 2021_US President Joe Biden's spending plans have come under harsh criticism with a GOP lawmaker likening his $2 trillion infrastructure plan to "addiction to spending".
Last month, Republicans proposed spending $568 billion on infrastructure, which was a much narrower and less expensive version of the plan Biden unveiled in March.
Biden’s plan requires $2.3 trillion that would be spent over eight years on programs and services that go beyond transportation, among them home care for seniors and technology and manufacturing research.
In addition, Biden also said $1.8 trillion would be spent on child-care and education plan.
Republican Sen. John Barrasso said Sunday that his biggest sticking point when it comes to Biden’s plan was “the trillions and trillions of dollars of reckless spending.”
Barrasso, speaking during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” said the infrastructure proposal was comparable to “someone with a new credit card.”
"When I look at this, this is a staggering amount of spending, like someone with a new credit card, and these are for things that we don’t necessarily need, we certainly can’t afford, but they’re going to delight the liberal left of the party."
"It seems to me that this is a cradle-to-grave role of government, whether it's paying for child care for everyone, college free college for everyone, and ultimately someone's going to have to pay for this. It's almost creating an addiction to spending," Barrasso said.
Lawmakers and administration officials, however, signaled Sunday that negotiations over the infrastructure package is likely to ramp up this week.
Biden invited Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, one of the lead GOP negotiators on the infrastructure package, and others to meet this week, according to White House chief of staff Ron Klain.
“We’re going to work with Republicans. We’re going to find common ground,” Klain said on CBS.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a centrist Republican involved in the discussions, said Biden is the one who needs to make the next offer in negotiations with GOP lawmakers.
GOP lawmakers, at the same time, believe it might be possible to reach a bipartisan agreement on a more limited package focused on roads, bridges and other elements of physical infrastructure.
“At this point, I think now that the Republicans have put forth a reasonable offer, it’s up to the president to do a counteroffer to us,” Collins said Sunday on CNN.
Meanwhile, Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to Biden, also said Sunday on CNN that Biden was willing to compromise and that “he wants to move this package forward in a bipartisan way—if that’s possible.”
“His red line is inaction, that we cannot afford not to make these investments in America’s economy,” she said.
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