Leaving his office, the Delaware Democrat passed Senator Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican with whom he has worked on policing issues. Mr. Wicker had just left a meeting at the White House.
I just talked to a friend of yours, Mr. Wicker said, before invoking Mr. Coonss degree in ethics from Yale Divinity School. He said you can preach. I said, Ive seen it.
Mr. Coons also does a fair amount of cajoling of members of his own party. Publicly and privately, he has been pushing for Democrats to take a smaller infrastructure deal, more palatable to Republicans, in the range of $800 billion or $1 trillion, far smaller than the $2.3 trillion package Mr. Biden proposed or his latest offer of $1.7 trillion.
That would be the single largest infrastructure bill ever, he said of a pared-down plan. Cool! Whats the problem?
After passing a bipartisan bill, he argued, Democrats could take up a second measure through the budget reconciliation process which is protected from a filibuster and could pass on a party-line vote that raised taxes on corporations to fund social services like day care programs and free community college. It would be a win-win deal, he argued, giving both parties something to campaign on during the midterm election season.
The Republicans get the benefit of now being able to beat us up and run against us as, They raised your taxes and theyre wasting it on day care, he said. We get to say, They care more about billionaires tax breaks than they do about educating the next generation.
Still, hopes for a bipartisan infrastructure deal are looking increasingly dim. Republicans who have offered a $568 billion plan have panned the latest offer from the Biden administration, and the two sides remain far apart on almost every detail.
