McConnell on infrastructure counteroffer: It’s not final
Senate Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell has said the infrastructure counteroffer by the Republican Party is not the final offer.
Senator McConnell was giving an exclusive interview on CNBC‘s “Squawk on the Street” on Thursday.
According to the interview’s unofficial transcript that US and Global News received from CNBC owner NBCUniversal, when show co-anchor Carl Quintanilla asked Senator McConnell if the senator believed that there was still more room to maneuver and if the infrastructure counteroffer was the GOP’s final, the US senator for Kentucky said “no.”
He continued, “We’re gonna keep talking and I understand the President is willing to keep talking.”
The senate minority leader added that GOP thinks President Biden will be “more reasonable than some of the people surrounding him.”
“We’d like to get an outcome on a significant infrastructure package and what we’ve already recommended on a bipartisan basis out of one of the senate committees just this week is more than we’ve ever done over a multiyear infrastructure bill so we’re open to spending some more,” said Senator McConnell.
He stated that the GOP was not willing to reopen the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA).
The TCJA is a congressional revenue act that was signed into law by former President Donald Trump and which amended the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, with some of the major elements of the changes including eliminating the alternative minimum tax for corporations and reducing it for individuals, increasing the standard deduction and family tax credits, reducing tax rates for individuals and businesses, eliminating personal exemptions and making it less beneficial to itemize deductions, further limiting the mortgage interest deduction and limiting deductions for state and local income taxes and property taxes.
Senator McConnell reminded that in February last year “we had the best economy we’ve had in half a century.” He went on to say that the reason for that was the TCJA. He then reiterated the GOP was not willing to reopen the bill.
When during the interview CNBC reporter Leslie Picker asked Senator McConnell what other ways he had in mind to pay for the infrastructure package, the senator replied, “Well, the best way to do it is reopening the COVID relief package and repurposing the massive amount of money. States are getting so much money they honestly don’t know what to do with it and they like infrastructure, all the states like infrastructure.”
He continued the answer, “It ought to be a way that we can pay for a significant portion of what we spend beyond the traditional amount of money that comes in from the gas tax.”
The senator concluded his reply, “The gap between that and what we can agree to could easily be paid for by the massive amount of money we sent down to states and localities.”
