| Democrats in Congress boast they know what they stand for while trying to enact sweeping legislation with President Biden that would reach into much of the U.S. economy and squeeze the wealthiest and corporations to pay higher taxes. As the debate about infrastructure and jobs moves beyond bridges and roads to definitions of federal responsibility and equitable taxation, House and Senate Republicans sound confident they know what voters are against. “Americans understand you can’t tax, spend and borrow your way to prosperity,” said Rep. Kevin Brady (Texas), the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, who recently announced he will retire from the chamber (Politico). Biden’s $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan, now in the headlines, has a second portion waiting in the wings, which he calls the American Families Plan. When it’s unveiled, perhaps this month, it will envision an expanded federal safety net and benefits for low-income and middle-income Americans to help them compete. One ingredient: child care. The president’s opening bid to pay for an infrastructure plan is higher taxes on corporations, much to the displeasure of big companies and their lobbyists in Washington. What comes next as a proposal to offset the costs will be tax hikes on people earning more than $400,000 a year. That phase of Biden’s pitch to the public is guaranteed to mobilize conservatives, who have plenty of practice opposing higher taxes. “I am prepared to compromise,” Biden told reporters before sitting down Monday in the Oval Office with a group of House and Senate lawmakers from both parties. It was his second round of such consultations about his infrastructure plan, and it occurred nine days before the president’s scheduled national address to a joint session of Congress. His intended audience next week will be voters. He’s likely to repeat what he said on Monday: “It’s a big package, but there are a lot of needs.” There are multiple suggestions in the mix to offset at least some of the proposed new costs. In the conversation: tax hikes on the wealthy, higher taxes for companies, “user fees,” more federal borrowing, and reprogramming of some federal dollars appropriated but not yet spent for other purposes. The bottom line: While there's more talk of bipartisanship on infrastructure, it's unlikely the parties will come together on such a high-profile endeavor. The Salt Lake Tribune: Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told Biden during Monday’s infrastructure meeting that one way to attract GOP support is to drop tax increases in favor of fees levied on the people who would benefit from improvements. 
© Getty Images The Hill’s Jordain Carney reports that Republicans are braced to battle about higher spending amid lesser skirmishes over earmarks and whether to offset any increase in the nation’s borrowing authority later this year. The GOP, which under former President Trump (and former President George W. Bush) embraced deficit spending, is splintering into camps. The most senior members of the Senate GOP caucus are at odds with conservative senators eyeing presidential races in 2024. The Hill: Senate Republicans vow to challenge Biden’s infrastructure plan using a budget rule that determines which legislative provisions are germane and which are out of bounds and have to be set aside. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, says the pending infrastructure and jobs legislation promoted by the president and Democrats offers “a target rich environment.” Meanwhile, most House Republicans and their leaders find themselves trying to ward off a hardline group of conservative firebrands who sought to form a white nationalist, racist “America First” caucus. The stated purpose: defense of America as “a culture, strengthened by a common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions.” Republicans behind the group — including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.) — quickly abandoned the project in the face of bipartisan blowback, but their initial interest left Republican leaders queasy (The Hill). As The Hill’s Cristina Marcos reports, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) backs Greene in her bid to expel from the House Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who is Financial Services Committee chairwoman, because she told liberal activists that “we’ve got to get more confrontational” about addressing police brutality. Marcos writes that McCarthy is trying to avoid outright open warfare in the GOP while attempting to keep the extremist fringe in check. The drama between the fiery Greene, who is white, and the equally fiery Waters, who is Black, roped in Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). She said Waters had remarked on Saturday during a Black Lives Matter gathering in Minneapolis about “confrontation in the manner of the civil rights movement” and had no need to apologize to colleagues. Asked if Waters’s comments could incite violence, one of McCarthy’s accusations, the Speaker said, “No, absolutely not.” The Grio: Waters: “I am nonviolent.” The Associated Press: Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Greene flaunt new paths to power, testing GOP leaders. > Former Vice President Walter Mondale, a governing partner to former President Jimmy Carter, died on Monday at his Minneapolis home at age 93 (The Hill and The New York Times). Throughout his career, Mondale advocated for an assertive federal role, especially on behalf of the poor, minority groups and women. “I’m a liberal or a progressive,” he told the Times in 2010. “I didn’t use the ‘liberal’ word much, because I thought it carried too much baggage. But my whole life, I worked on the idea that government can be an instrument for social progress. We need that progress. Fairness requires it.” Mondale lost by a landslide to former President Ronald Reagan. He also made history with his selection of a woman, Geraldine Ferraro, to be his running mate in 1984. In statements, Carter hailed Mondale as “a friend” and Biden said he had spoken to Mondale and his family over the weekend “to reflect on the years of friendship we shared, and how much we learned from and leaned on each other.” Biden and Mondale served in the Senate together and Biden consulted him before he became vice president. > Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) said Monday he is resigning from the House effective May 16 to accept a position as president and CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. His decision is likely to set off a special election, the state’s second of 2021. Voters in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District in November will choose the successor to former Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio). Fudge is now secretary of Housing and Urban Development (The Hill). > Ahead of a Wednesday vote on earmarks, 15 Senate Republicans said Monday they oppose returning to the practice of allowing individual lawmakers to insert pet provisions into measure (Politico). > The House approved a cannabis banking bill on Monday (Reuters). > Biden’s nighttime address to a joint session of Congress next week is on a Wednesday. Some House Republicans asked Pelosi to reschedule it because they argued they are not in session and they want all lawmakers to be included rather than a limited audience to heed pandemic precautions (The Hill). > The House will allow lawmakers and staff to escort some visitors back to the Capitol beginning on Wednesday (Axios and The Hill). > Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died at 42 years of age on Jan. 7, hours after battling rioters during the siege at the Capitol, suffered two strokes and died of natural causes, according to Washington, D.C.’s chief medical examiner. The determination will likely make it difficult for prosecutors to pursue homicide charges against protesters who assaulted Sicknick with bear spray. There was no evidence the officer suffered an allergic reaction to the chemicals before his death, according to the autopsy. “All that transpired played a role in his condition,” the medical examiner said of events on Jan. 6 (The Washington Post). 
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