Susan Collins Gets Giddy Over Bipartisan Infrastructure Plan Keeping Tax Cuts For The Rich

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 01:32 pm

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) couldn’t hide her happiness over the bipartisan infrastructure plan keeping tax cuts for the rich and cutting COVID relief funds.

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Collins said on Face The Nation, “There won’t be a gas tax increase we won’t be undoing the 2017 reform bill. Let me talk about three of these. One is the implementation of infrastructure financing authority. That is very similar to the state revolving funds that we use for sewer and water projects. It’s a bipartisan proposal that was first put forward by Senators Warner and Blunt. Second would be to repurpose some of the funding that has not been sent, $1.9 trillion package that was enacted in March. There were restrictions on what the funding can be used for? It can be used for water, sewer and broadband. Third, there be a provision for electric vehicles to take their fair share of using our roads and bridges, they are not paying any gas tax so those are three of the prov

When asked about some states not wanting to give back COVID relief funds, Sen. Collins said, “I’ve spoken with governors who are enthusiastic about the prospect, and when you have a state like California which has been enormous surplus giving billions of additional dollars, I think we can find room to repurpose some of this money, in addition, there is literally hundreds of billions of dollars on the pipeline going back to the eventual CARES Act that was passed in March of last year. We have put an enormous amount of money and rightly so into fighting covid-19. Last year we had five bipartisan bills in this year. President Joe Biden added another 1.9 trillion dollars.

Collins couldn’t hide her happiness at the idea of keeping tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations and making people pay for infrastructure either through lost COVID relief to the state, which could mean higher state and local taxes, or increased taxes and fees on the non-wealthy.

It is a huge problem that five Senate Democrats agreed to a deal that does not raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

President Biden has already said that any proposal that leaves the Trump tax cuts in place is a non-starter. This is a bad deal, and it needs to be rejected by the Biden administration, so that Democrats can pass a real infrastructure plan that helps the American people.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association