Senators crafting a bipartisan infrastructure plan — but it kills plumbing for clean water, child and elder care

President Joe Biden proposed a $2 trillion infrastructure package that would fix all of the road and bridge problems but also extend to other forms of infrastructure like clean drinking water, repairing and securing the electric grid, create more car charging stations and other personal forms of infrastructure.

Republicans proposed a plan that was about $500 billion. But that was a game. The overwhelming amount of funds in the Republican-proposed package has infrastructure spending is already part of the budget as Glenn Kessler and Catherine Rampell wrote for The Washington Post.

According to a new Post report, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and other Republican Senators are bypassing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's "vote no" policy to look at a way to bring both sides together.

Thus far the Democrats proposed $2 trillion. Republicans came back with $500 billion. Democrats came down by ten times the amount while Republicans only increased their pledge to $550 billion. Still, their plan includes existing funding. While Republicans reject things like retrofitting buildings with green technology and creating personal infrastructures like caregivers and childcare, the bipartisan plan appears to be looking to roads and bridges.

"We're not very far from the Biden proposal on areas where we both think it's appropriate for an infrastructure bill," Romney told The Post on Tuesday.

"The still forming compromise is expected to jettison some of President Biden's proposals that have struggled to attract Republican support, including his plan to couple infrastructure investments with new federal aid targeting elder care and low-income families. Gone, too, are likely to be the president's proposed funds for electric vehicles," Romney told The Post.

Canceling caregiving and childcare as infrastructure has brought Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) who has opposed all of the Democratic proposals, including the COVID-19 package, until his governor went on television to rail against him. His colleague Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) intends to present a $1 trillion plan to Biden on Thursday. Manchin gushed over her efforts on the bipartisan bill.

"Shelly's [Capito] done a great job, she's been involved in everything we can, but you know she has put out a plan there and that's not where the White House is," he said.

As MSNBC producer Steve Benson noted, Biden has an option to go at it alone if Republicans decide to say "no" to every proposal. With Manchin working on his own plan, it eliminates that plan from moving forward.