Republicans are quick to denounce the way Biden wants to fund programs — but they have no ideas of their own: columnist
Republicans were more than eager to bring down Obamacare. For ten years, they complained about the Affordable Care Act, saying that it must be repealed and replaced. But when it came time for Republicans to "repeal and replace," they had no replacement.
That's not the only time this has happened, James Downie wrote at the Washington Post Sunday.
Recently, Republicans attacked President Joe Biden's infrastructure and jobs plan is something Republicans agree is necessary, but they don't like the idea of raising taxes on corporations that they just cut in 2017. So, what's the Republican Party's plan to rebuild the country and usher in more jobs after the pandemic and recession? Well, they don't have one.
"There's no doubt that Mississippi could use" the money, Gov. Tate Reeves said on CNN. "We don't have to hike taxes by $2 trillion."
It's unclear how Reeves thinks things are paid for in the United States. Taxes generate revenue that the country can use to do things like fix roads, fund a massive rural broadband effort, fix collapsing sewage lines and lead pipes poisoning drinking water. Where else does Gov. Reeves propose the money come from?
"One way you pay for it is by seeing significant improved economic growth," Reeves said. CNN's Jake Tapper pointed out it "doesn't really answer the question." How does Reeves think economic growth happens?
"The closest attempt at an answer came from [Sen. Roy] Blunt (R-MO), who suggested paying for a scaled-down package with, among other things, a tax on electric vehicles and driverless cars," wrote Downie. "But that proposal was in some ways more telling: Blunt's rationale — that those who benefit from improved infrastructure should fund it — could just as easily apply to the companies that benefit from better roads, bridges and the like as it could to the ordinary Americans who drive on them. Rather than at least splitting the difference between the more equitable corporate tax increase and the regressive taxes on drivers, Blunt would lump the entire burden on drivers."
What makes the comments from Republicans more ironic is that they passed a hefty tax cut to corporations that was supposed to jumpstart the economy and it failed.
"Even before the pandemic, however, none of those promises came to pass," said Downie. "After an initial bonanza, investment fell short of GOP hopes, with most of the money instead used for dividends and stock buybacks. Wages didn't rise because of the cuts. In 2019, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the law paid for only one-fifth of its cuts."
It has become clear that whatever ideas that the Republicans tried during the four years that they were in control failed to deliver.
" Republicans don't really care if this bill — or any other Democratic bill — is paid for. They just don't want their friends covering the cost. The good news for Democrats is that view is a loser with voters," concluded Downie.
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