Literally zero Republicans will back anything close.

Now that Biden’s plan is on the table, the political battle over it has begun. If approved by Congress, funds would be distributed to states over eight years, or two presidential terms, instead of the usual 10 years. To finance the proposal, the administration has proposed a partial rollback of some tax breaks signed into law in 2017 by President Donald Trump, pushing tax rates on corporations from 21 percent to 28 percent, and raising rates on individual incomes over $400,000 and capital gains for the next 15 years.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said not a single Republican will support what he called Biden’s “grab bag” plan, citing newly revived worries over the national debt. Party leaders have seized on Biden’s tax proposal as a flaw even though  show nearly two-thirds of Americans approve of raising the corporate rate to fund infrastructure. Nevertheless, Biden has quietly held talks with some Republican lawmakers in recent weeks, according to news reports, saying he’s open to negotiation “if possible.”

But even some Democrats, notably Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have questioned such a large spending bill and the wisdom of apportioning more than half the money to things other than roads, bridges, and utility systems — including $400 billion for more home medical care for seniors and the disabled, $213 billon for affordable housing, $174 billion to build charging stations for electric vehicles, $100 billion to expand high-speed broadband nationwide; $100 billion for public schools; and $25 billion for child-care facilities. They have asked that these items be moved into a separate bill. With a 50/50 Senate and Democrats currently holding only a seven-seat majority in the House, Biden can ill afford to ignore the opinions of potential naysayers.

With interest rates for government borrowing still near zero percent, and the strong track record infrastructure spending has as an “investment multiplier,” financing an infrastructure package is smart and relatively risk-free, said Bilmes. Raising capital gains and income taxes would create a protracted battle on Capitol Hill that would eat up valuable time and political capital for the Biden administration.

While hiking gas and carbon taxes “should be” part of the plan’s financing equation, she said, those moves are highly unlikely since Congress hasn’t raised the federal gas tax since 1993 because of its broad unpopularity.