Pelosi-Schumer letter does not contain a single mention of the words “roads” or “bridges” or “highways”
Pelosi-Schumer letter contains the following words: “housing and other initiatives” and “climate change” and “public health” and “broadband”
In a letter to President Trump, Democrat leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer today demanded a tax increase with “substantial, new and real revenue” in advance of their Tuesday “infrastructure” talks.
The Democrat letter is a push for another Obama 2009-style “stimulus” spending plan. The letter (see the full text of the letter at the bottom of this post) does not contain any of the following words:
Road
Roads
Bridge
Bridges
Highways
Interstates
However, here are the words Democrat leaders did mention:
“Housing and other initiatives”
“Climate change”
“Clean energy”
“Labor contractors”
“Broadband”
“Public health”
ATR’s President Grover Norquist issued the following statement:
“There is bipartisan support for ‘infrastructure’ because the word is heard by Democrats to mean ‘everything except roads’ and by Republicans to mean ‘roads, not yet another stimulus spending program.’
If Democrats wanted to build roads they would have done so with the tens of billions they have siphoned off to Davis-Bacon, bike paths and general revenue funds.
Trump and Republicans in Congress would like improved roads. The Democrats want Trump to endorse higher taxes so Democrats could, once again, spend on everything except roads.
Most importantly, Democrats want to repeat their huge victory in 1990 where they convinced George H.W. Bush to hike taxes and lose re-election in 1992.
Every time Republicans have foolishly given Democrats money promised to roads—the tax dollars are found far away from roads and in the pockets of Democrat special interests.”
While the letter from Democrat leadership remains vague on which taxes they want to hike, several Democrat plans have called for a 25-cent per-gallon gas tax increase. Additionally, Senate Democrats have previously released a proposal which would revert the top individual tax rate to 39.6% and raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 25%.
The full text of the Schumer-Pelosi letter is below:
Monday April 29, 2019
Dear Mr. President:
We look forward to meeting you on Tuesday to discuss plans to rebuild America’s infrastructure and create millions of good-paying jobs.
As you know, the issue of infrastructure is a bipartisan Congressional priority and we believe there are significant majorities in both the House and Senate to take action on the issue.
This bipartisanship is a reflection of the American people’s recognition of the need to rebuild our infrastructure to promote commerce, create jobs, advance public health with clean air and clean water, and make our transportation systems safer – indeed, to improve the quality of life of all Americans.
In light of our commitment to work with you to pass a comprehensive infrastructure bill, we urge you to consider the following priorities:
1. America’s unmet infrastructure needs are massive, and a bipartisan infrastructure package must meet those needs with substantial, new and real revenue. We look forward to hearing your ideas on how to pay for this package to ensure that it is big and bold enough to meet our country’s needs.
2. A big and bold infrastructure package must be comprehensive and include clean energy and resiliency priorities. To truly be a gamechanger for the American people, we should go beyond transportation and into broadband, water, energy, schools, housing and other initiatives. We must also invest in resiliency and risk mitigation of our current infrastructure to deal with climate change.
3. A big and bold infrastructure plan must have strong Buy America, labor, and women, veteran and minority-owned business protections in any package. This bill can and should be a major jobs and ownership boost for the American people – manufacturers, labor contractors, and women, veteran and minority-owned businesses.
Thank you for your consideration of some of our priorities, which we wanted you to be aware of before the meeting.
We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday.
Best wishes,
Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House
U.S. House of Representatives
Chuck Schumer
Senate Democratic Leader
U.S. Senate