Biden objects to raising gas tax to pay for infrastructure

 The White House made clear Friday that President Joe Biden was opposed to letting the federal gasoline tax rise at the rate of inflation to help pay for an infrastructure package that a bipartisan group of 21 senators is trying to craft.

The gas tax increase was part of an early package that called for $579 billion in new spending on roads, bridges, rail and public transit. It’s unclear if it will make the final cut and the White House seems intent on making sure it doesn’t.

“The President has been clear throughout these negotiations: He is adamantly opposed to raising taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said. “After the extraordinarily hard times that ordinary Americans endured in 2020 — job losses, shrinking incomes, squeezed budgets — he is simply not going to allow Congress to raise taxes on those who suffered the most.”
The federal gas tax stands at 18.4 cents a gallon and has not increased since 1993. It helps pay for highways and mass transit programs around the country. Congress has traditionally relied on the user-pay principle to pay for road and bridge work, but is increasingly relying on general funds to accomplish that task. Lawmakers from both parties are wary of attack ads accusing them of supporting a hike in gas prices.

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said that indexing the gas tax to inflation was a nonstarter for him.

“It’s another hit on working people,” Wyden said.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said a gas tax hike is a “Republican thing.”

“Democrats want to fund this by taxing people (earning) $400,000,” Brown said.

The White House is expecting to hear from the senators crafting the infrastructure package on Monday. It is scaled back from Biden’s proposal, but Democrats are preparing to move other parts of Biden’s agenda in separate legislation that they could pass using a tool that requires only a simple majority for approval.

The bipartisan plan offers about $579 billion in new spending, including $110 billion on roads and highways, $66 billion on passenger and freight rail and $48 billion on public transit. An additional $47 billion would go toward efforts to fight climate change and there is money for electric vehicle charging stations.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., described the infrastructure bill being negotiated a good start, but most Democrats don’t believe it does enough on climate or on the amount of revenue raises, and doesn’t address priorities like paid family leave. So they will proceed on two tracks that include a reconciliation package going beyond what’s in the infrastructure bill.
Overall, about 168 million American adults, or 65.1% of the U.S. population 18 years and older, have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Friday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The pace of new vaccinations in the U.S. has dropped significantly from a high of nearly 2 million per day about two months ago, jeopardizing Biden’s ability to hit the 70% mark.

The White House said its whole-of-government approach to the vaccination effort has put the virus in retreat, which in turn has brought COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths to their lowest levels in more than a year. But Biden noted in his remarks that some communities in states with lower vaccination rates are seeing cases and hospitalizations increase.

The administration is in the middle of a monthlong blitz to combat vaccine hesitancy and the lack of urgency some people feel to get the shots, particularly in the South and Midwest.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Friday that she expects the delta variant of the coronavirus will become the dominant strain in the U.S. That strain has become dominant in Britain after it was first detected in India.

During an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” she told Americans who get their shots that “you’ll be protected against this delta variant.”

As part of the administration’s vaccination push, Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Atlanta on Friday to tour a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination site at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a pastor until his assassination in 1968. The current senior pastor is U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Harris also spoke at a COVID-19 vaccination mobilization event at Clark Atlanta University, a historically Black school. She told students they “have the power to end this pandemic” by giving people information about the multitude of resources, such as free car rides and child care, that are available to help them get vaccinated.

In Fulton County, Georgia, where Atlanta is located, 49% of residents have received at least one shot. Statewide, it is 42%, Harris said.

“Getting vaccinated is about building the power of community,” she said. “Getting vaccinated is about building the power of our country.”

The Biden administration insists that even if the 70% vaccination goal is unmet, it will have little effect on the overall U.S. recovery, which is already ahead of where Biden said it would be months ago.

Biden wants to celebrate Independence Day as a “summer of freedom” from the virus.

Earlier this week, the White House announced plans to host first responders, essential workers and service members and their families on the South Lawn for a cookout and to watch the fireworks over the National Mall.

More than 1,000 guests are expected for what will be one of the largest events of Biden’s presidency.

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