McConnell says Biden called him to discuss infrastructure plan

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Wednesday that President Biden called him this week to talk about a forthcoming infrastructure proposal, while appearing skeptical that he would ultimately support it.

“He called me about it yesterday,” McConnell told reporters in Kentucky about his talk with Biden.

The phone conversation comes after McConnell signaled last week that the two had largely not talked since Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20. 

Biden is traveling to Pittsburgh on Wednesday to unveil his roughly $2 trillion plan that includes transportation infrastructure, modern infrastructure like broadband and upgrading buildings, and funding innovation and research and development of future technologies. 

Biden is proposing paying for the bill by increasing the corporate tax rate to 28 percent, as well as establishing a minimum global tax. The 2017 GOP tax bill previously lowered the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.

The administration has started outreach to Republicans on Capitol Hill, saying that they hope the end product can be bipartisan.

But top Democrats have acknowledged that it’s likely they will need to use reconciliation — a budget process that lets them avoid the filibuster — in order to pass the bill.

McConnell, on Wednesday, signaled that he was “not likely” to support the final bill if it included raising taxes or deficit spending, even if it included funds for infrastructure projects in Kentucky.

McConnell said the plan includes “not only significantly more borrowing but raising taxes on the most productive parts of our economy,” adding that Congress wasn’t in a “very bipartisan period.”

“This is not going to be apparently an infrastructure package. It’s like a Trojan horse. So it’s called infrastructure but inside the Trojan horse is going to be more borrowed money and massive tax increases,” he said.