‘I Would Have a Very Hard Time Voting Yes’: Dem Congressman Warns Biden on Compromising Too Much With the GOP

Biden “can’t expect us to vote for an infrastructure deal dictated by the Republican Party.”

A New York Democratic U.S. Congressman is warning President Joe Biden that Republicans should not be dictating the infrastructure bill and he is giving away too much.

President Biden’s original infrastructure proposal was $2.3 trillion. After GOP attacks he dropped it to $1.7 trillion. Today, as he negotiates with Republican U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, that proposal is now $1 trillion.

Biden also proposed to help pay for the infrastructure bill by increasing the top tax rate for the richest, biggest corporations to 28%. Now, it’s 21%, with a 15% minimum corporate tax rate designed for companies that pay no taxes.

U.S. Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York, whose district covers parts of The Bronx and Westchester County, says the way the bill stands right now, he might not be able to vote for it.

“If what I’m reading is true, I would have a very hard time voting yes on this bill,” Rep. Bowman said on Twitter Thursday.

“$2 trillion was already the compromise,” he notes, adding that President Biden “can’t expect us to vote for an infrastructure deal dictated by the Republican Party.”

Bowman points to a Washington Post article that reports: “Even with the potential concession on taxes, though, the White House’s roughly $1 trillion plan still amounts to four times as much as Republicans have been willing to spend to improve the country’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections. Entering the meeting, GOP leaders had endorsed roughly $257 billion in new spending, while maintaining an unwavering opposition to any tax hikes to finance infrastructure reform.”

That echoes a New York Times piece which makes what Republicans are doing even more clear:

“The president has now cut more than $1 trillion from his initial $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal, while Republicans have added less than $100 billion in new spending to their first offer, which contained about $200 billion in new spending by many estimates.”

Bowman makes his case on Twitter.

“No Republican vote in favor of an infrastructure package should supersede our mission: to build an America that works for the people, not for massive corporations,” he says. “Getting Republicans on board is not necessary. Getting the American people back on their feet is.”

Showcasing a video shot in the New York City neighborhood he grew up in, Bowman shows graffiti on the door of a public housing building that reads: “help.”

This is what decades of infrastructure “compromises” and disinvestment does to districts like mine.

We ain’t having that. pic.twitter.com/sUTne7gWw5

— Jamaal Bowman (@JamaalBowmanNY) June 4, 2021

And if all that weren’t clear enough, he adds this:

Republicans have given Democratic governance the middle finger since the day President Biden was inaugurated.

We can’t — and won’t — reward them by keeping Donald Trump's corporate tax cuts in place and slashing our infrastructure package in half.

— Jamaal Bowman (@JamaalBowmanNY) June 3, 2021