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His cautious approach to making Biden a top priority reflects the rift between Senate Republicans over whether to work with Democrats on part of the president’s spending plans while fighting tooth and nail for the rest. Many Democrats predict that McConnell will kill the deal after chaining talks for weeks on end, but the current infrastructure talks are particularly sensitive for the GOP leader as one of his close allies, the Senator from Ohio Rob Portman, is the main Republican negotiator.
McConnell is aware of the conventional wisdom that he will ultimately settle the case and is careful not to become the face of his opposition.
“He’s usually the brunt of the demonization on the other side,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), another McConnell confidant. “I don’t think he’s Dr No when it comes to any legislation.”
For now at least, McConnell’s approach marks a departure from his past strategy of blocking Democratic priorities and portraying the ruling party as chaotic and ineffective. Advisers say he understands the bipartisan appeal of infrastructure and sees it as less ideological than other Democratic priorities.
The Kentucky Republican is also perceptive of times when his power is limited, as evidenced by his 2013 decision to oppose – but not try to defeat – his members’ immigration compromise with the Democrats. He has also sent envoys in the past to dialogue with Democrats on health care and the deficit, efforts that ultimately failed.
Even Democrats who have harshly criticized McConnell have noticed a shift in tactics in recent weeks. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) Said the Republican leader’s strategy “looks different” this time around.
“Its problem is that a lot of its members like what is in it,” Murphy said. “McConnell is going to have a hard time keeping his caucus together if he decides to oppose it.”
Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont.)
“I don’t think it would be smart for him to do that, so I don’t think he will,” Tester said. “It’s better for them to pass the bipartisan bill and let the Democrats fight on the $ 3.5 trillion bill.”
McConnell could adopt a similar tactic this summer to his 2013 piece on immigration, opposing the deal without flogging it. But there’s a flip side to the pressure he’s feeling, and it’s coming from the right. Conservatives are increasingly relying on the Senate GOP to tear up the bipartisan deal and kill its attempt to pour $ 40 billion into increased IRS enforcement. Former President Donald Trump also trashed the deal.
And many Republican senators fear falling into a trap by agreeing to an infrastructure deal that will help Biden pass a bigger spending bill, designed to raise taxes for the rich while expanding social programs and policies to fight. against climate change. During a closed-door lunch Tuesday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) Bluntly asked his party what working with the Democrats would ultimately get the GOP, attendees said.
McConnell later responded that Republicans could not control the Democrats’ separate spending plans, urging his party to view Portman’s efforts as separate from the multibillion-dollar package Biden’s party plans to pass without the votes of the GOP.
When asked if he liked the argument afterwards, Johnson replied, “No.”
“All I see is a greater chance of much bigger deficits,” Johnson said. “I don’t agree with this strategy of: Let’s do this and make it difficult for their ability to achieve reconciliation. I don’t agree with that.
Republican supporters of the bipartisan infrastructure plan, however, argue that the GOP has nothing to lose by supporting it. Doing so, they say, allows the 50-vote minority to put its seal on a physical infrastructure proposal that does not include tax hikes and later put vulnerable Democrats in place for supporting the $ 3.5 trillion tax and spending package.
Even if he ends up opposing the deal, McConnell is aware that being too harsh to fail comes with risks. It’s much more likely, according to allies, that a handful of Republican senators who initially approved the deal will end up opposing the Democrats’ big spending plans and the bipartisan deal’s tough revenue streams.
McConnell’s senior deputy on Wednesday scowled at Democrats’ plans to tie the nearly $ 600 billion in new spending on roads and bridges with a $ 3.5 trillion non-GOP spending package to fight climate change and expanding health insurance.
“I want to try to look at the infrastructure bill alone. But it is terribly difficult, when they continue to link them publicly, not to see them through this lens, ”said Senate Minority Whip John Thune (RS.D.). “It makes it difficult for a lot of Republicans to pass the infrastructure bill.”
Democrats see Thune’s comment as a harbinger of possible McConnell opposition. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), A frequent antagonist of McConnell, said that “the fact that he is silent now means that he is not sure of the lay of the land.”
“When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And all he does is oppose, and I don’t expect it to be any different, ”said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).
Republican negotiators say they have so far felt no resistance from McConnell. Some supporters of the deal took it as a positive signal that it advised them to assess the bipartisan plan separately from the Democrats’ social spending plan.
Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) described the GOP leader, so often opposed to all of the Democrats’ big ideas, as “very open-minded.”
“He encouraged us to continue,” she said. “He didn’t go one way or the other, which is understandable because we don’t have a final product.”
On Thursday, the bipartisan group hopes to finalize the framework it laid down at the end of June. However, McConnell is unlikely to step in until they release legislation and the Congressional Budget Office decides whether the proposed funding mechanisms actually pay for the legislation.
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