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CLEVELAND, Ohio – Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portman appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday morning to discuss the bipartisan infrastructure proposal he is leading negotiations on in the Senate, saying the current Democratic $6 trillion plan isn’t about infrastructure at all.
“It’s kind of a $6 trillion grab bag of progressive priorities,” Portman told host Chuck Todd. “Ours is about core infrastructure and it is paid for. It’s paid for without raising taxes, which is key.”
You can watch Sen. Portman’s interview with “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd in the video above.
Portman spoke about the “very creative ways” the bipartisan infrastructure proposal would be funded, including the infrastructure “bank” and repurposing COVID-19 funding packages that have not yet been spent, like the latest $350 billion package sent to states and local governments.
“They would like to spend some of that on infrastructure; my state of Ohio certainly would. And we would permit them to do that and that helps pay for the package,” the senator said.
When host Chuck Todd posited that “the average person” would look at the creative funding and say it’s simply “accounting maneuvers” that would still increase the nation’s deficit, Portman disagreed.
“No, no, absolutely not,” Portman said. “I think when you look at infrastructure you have to think about what it is — it’s long-term investments. All the economics of this work well for our long-term economic growth and that’s what this is about. So, it’s something that can be paid for definitely.”
Portman emphasized that the bipartisan proposal would not raise taxes, while the current $6 trillion Democratic proposal would.
“What we don’t want to do is hurt the economy right now as we’re coming out of this pandemic by raising taxes on working families,” Portman said. “It’s the largest tax increase in American history in addition to this huge spending. It’s important that we have pay-fors, but we don’t want to raise taxes.”
The Ohio senator added that he hopes the bipartisan proposal will win favor within the White House and with President Biden.
“This [bipartisan proposal] helps President Biden keep that [campaign] pledge of having an infrastructure package, but also to keep his pledge of doing things across the aisle and getting things done,” Portman said.
The idea of a bipartisan infrastructure counter-proposal began picking up steam in Congress last week, when a total of 21 senators – 11 Republicans, nine Democrats and one independent – came out in support of the still-unreleased blueprint plan, the Washington Post reports.
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