Four days after he signed a $2.2 trillion economic rescue package, President Trump called on Congress on Tuesday to approve another $2 trillion “phase four” plan, this time to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure.
“With interest rates for the United States being at ZERO, this is the time to do our decades long awaited Infrastructure Bill,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “It should be VERY BIG & BOLD, Two Trillion Dollars, and be focused solely on jobs and rebuilding the once great infrastructure of our Country! Phase 4”.
The president’s tweet appeared to put him at odds with top congressional Republicans such as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who have been cautioning to wait and see how the biggest rescue package in history helps workers and businesses recover before addressing more legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, also was resisting Tuesday the idea of a fourth relief package so quickly on the heels of the third.
“I think we need to wait a few days here, a few weeks, and see how things are working out,” Mr. McConnell told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “Let’s see how things are going and respond accordingly. I’m not going to allow this to be an opportunity for the Democrats to achieve unrelated policy items that they would not otherwise be able to pass.”
But Mr. Trump’s call put him on the same side as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has been pushing a fourth coronavirus bill as a near certainty. She, too, wants infrastructure to be a major component.
“This … fourth bill will be about recovery — again, always addressing the emergency and mitigation aspects of it, but to talk about how we go forward and in a way that is specific to the coronavirus,” the California Democrat said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Mr. Trump said later Tuesday that he wouldn’t allow Democrats to advance their clean-energy agenda as part of any massive infrastructure plan.
“That doesn’t mean we’re going to do the Green New Deal. I won’t approve it,” he said. “We’re going to borrow the money at zero% interest.”
The president has been seeking a massive infrastructure plan ever since his 2016 campaign, saying the issue is one of the best chances to unite Democrats and Republicans. But discussions in the first three years of his presidency have fallen apart, usually over the issue of how to pay for it.
In February 2018, lawmakers said Mr. Trump agreed privately to a 25-cent-per-gallon increase in gas taxes to fund a plan, but the president didn’t support the proposal publicly.
Jobless claims last week spiked to a record 3.28 million as businesses nationwide closed to limit the spread of the coronavirus. A major public-works plan to rebuild roads, bridges, airports and water systems could help reduce unemployment that is forecast to rise to 15% over the next several months.
Democrats also are now pushing for a repeal of the cap on the repealing the cap on the state and local tax deduction, or SALT. It would provide tax rebates to about 13 million households, most of which earn more than $100,000 per year.
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, scoffed at the proposal: “Maybe this will help them afford box seats at the Kennedy Center. Can’t make this up.”
• David Sherfinski contributed to this report.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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