Peter Doocy enters the White House press briefing room every day with questions, prepared questions that he seems to feel are hard-hitting “gotcha” questions for press secretary Jen Psaki. Every day, he asks his questions and every day, Psaki reminds him how ridiculous he is.
Republicans, who of course are joined by everyone on Fox News, have criticized the insistence by President Biden and his press secretary for saying that the Democrats’ new infrastructure plan is meant to cost nothing: not that the bill is free, just that those top-line, big budget items are paid for in the plan. While some spending is added, the majority will come from new taxes imposed on households making over $400,000 a year as well as big corporations paying their fair share.
Doocy tried to push her, asking if saying that the bill costs nothing, that must means it’s free. Psaki set him straight.
‘Let’s not dumb this down for the American public here. What we’re talking about is how much the top-line investments are, which are all paid for, so therefore costs zero. No matter what the costs or size of the top-line investments are, we have ways to pay for it. So the point is that’s important to the American public – all of your viewers too – is that this is not going to cost the American public a dollar.’
“I think anybody who pretends that it's a hardship for billionaires to pay a little bit more in taxes so that a single mom gets childcare support … that's an argument that is unsustainable.” — @BarackObama on Pres. Biden’s $3.5T Build Back Better infrastructure agenda. pic.twitter.com/L5jVYF4w65
— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 28, 2021
Biden’s infrastructure plan does require an investment, an investment paid for by corporations like Amazon and Facebook, who pay zero dollars in taxes every year, but it does not raise taxes for working-class families, no matter how many times Republicans want to use their flippant, nonsense dismissals.
According to The Associated Press:
‘Congress has authorized spending up to $3.5 trillion over a decade, but Biden is prodding Democrats to fully cover the cost of the legislation — by raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy, negotiating the price of prescription drugs and dialing up other sources of federal revenue such as increased IRS funding. The idea is that entire package should pay for itself.’
Still trying to wrap my head around how anyone could insist $3.5 trillion equals $0.
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) October 4, 2021
Republicans, however, have stuck to the party line on criticizing Psaki, which requires a lot of faith in the GOP voters not understanding how legislation and budgets work. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) insists that raising taxes on the wealthy is socialism because he hopes they don’t understand that, either.
‘The radical left is pushing in all their chips — they want to use this terrible but temporary pandemic as a Trojan horse for permanent socialism. Trillions upon trillions more in government spending when families are already facing inflation.’
It’s not fair for a teacher to pay a higher tax rate than an entire oil company. President Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda will ensure the wealthy pay their fair share. pic.twitter.com/L33D4bT3qw
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 27, 2021
