rove on where this is going carl um
it's still an uphill battle to get this
done whether it's
working with republicans or even whether
the numbers are there democrats going it
alone
where do you think this is going well i
think it is going to be difficult
to get all of this done let's let's look
at the state of play
biden started out with a 2.3 trillion
dollar infrastructure so-called
infrastructure package
that included a lot of things in it that
we don't think of conventionally as
as infrastructure the republicans
offered up
548 billion dollars now at this point
the administration has lowered its
number to 1.7 trillion dollars
and the republicans are up to 928
billion
so there's been some change here my
sense is that if this has a chance of
passing
it's going to take two steps the first
step is
whenever they arrive at it bipartisan
that's why they're continuing
the administration is trying to continue
to push the republicans to raise the
number
and open it up to tax to pay for by tax
increases
i don't think that's going to happen so
that the choice is going to come down to
do they want to pass 928
billion dollars on a bipartisan basis if
so they'll get a lot of votes for it
but let's not kid ourselves there is a
step two which is to take the
the 1.4 trillion dollars in spending
that's not included
in the in the bipartisan uh offer that's
on the table
and pass it on a party line vote using
reconciliation so they don't need to
have a
60 vote threshold in the in the senate
the trouble with that is going to be
that that you know with only five votes
in the house you've got some democrats
in the house who say i don't want to
vote for a corporate tax increase
i don't want to vote for higher taxes
and and that makes it very very iffy
that's why the administration is trying
to push the republicans
as far as they can because that makes
the second step easier for the
for the democrats if they get the
republicans committed to large tax
increases all right so let's talk
democrats only if it goes that direction
it's it's extremely dicey if i can
mix those words to see that done right
because there are enough
you know democrats concerned about the
tax increase that you pointed out
and and concerned that that given the
razor
margins really in the house and the
senate um that would be tough
yeah it will be i mean think about it
you only need one democrat
in the senate to say well i can't take a
tax bill that big
and you got to reduce the taxes and
therefore reduce the package
and only five in the house five
democrats in the house who say you know
what
i can't go back to my suburban district
and say yeah i'm raising corporate taxes
i'm raising other levies i'm going to
make it more difficult for farmers and
ranchers to pass their
uh pass their farms and ranches on to
their kids by
raising taxes on capital gains and on
death taxes
so there are lots of and when you got
margins that narrow it's hard to do
something on a straight party line vote
and again that's why they're pushing so
hard to get the republicans
if at all possible to cave on some big
issues that allow them to have a lot
more revenue
to pay for things that are outside the
definition of of uh
of normal infrastructure uh and to make
and make the republicans share some of
the blame for what the democrats all
along have been saying this is a big
winner for us politically
if we spend all of this money and raise
all these taxes but there's a
recognition that frankly
it's not that big a winner all right so
if this drags
past you know the summer hero which is
conceivable
then you're up against the midterms you
know you're getting close to that i'm
wondering
time would be of the essence for
democrats wouldn't it
yeah that's why i think they've been
wise in saying we're going to get this
done
we're either going to come to an
agreement here shortly or we're going to
proceed on our own but frankly that that
that that's a statement of realism that
they got it they got to start making the
decision
to either what they're going to agree to
on a bipartisan basis
and and then because they they're going
to need a lot of time to try and get the
the package that is not agreed to by the
republicans they're going to need a lot
of time for the democrats to try and
push that through
because again all you need is one
democrat in the senate to say i can't go
for that
or five democrats in the house to say
they can't go for the party line
uh vote themselves and they got trouble
yeah indeed all right car bro great
catching up with you thank you very very
much