Leftist billionaire George Soros’s organizations pledged to spend as much as $100 million to pass President Joe Biden’s spending initiatives, specifically his new $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan.
The Open Society Foundation plans to start with a $20 million investment in grassroots organizing, according to Axios.
“Facts don’t always win without some real muscle put behind getting those facts in front of the American people,” said former Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., who serves as executive director of Open Society-U.S.
Perriello claimed Biden’s infrastructure plan “has broad public support,” despite spending more on electric vehicles and other climate-change initiatives than on actual public works, such as roads, highways, and bridges.
“But we’ve seen popular reforms get demonized before by partisans and special interests, and we are not going to let that happen,” he added.
Republicans have already vowed to oppose Biden’s infrastructure plan if it reaches the Senate, where the parties are split 50–50.
Central to their concern is the repeal of former president Donald Trump’s popular Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Biden’s plan to raise the the top-tier income-tax bracket to 39.6% could potentially tank the economy and hurt small-business owners disproportionately at a particularly precarious time.
Objections notwithstanding, the Senate parliamentarian announced on Monday that Democrats can bypass the GOP entirely by using budgetary rules to pass at least one more appropriations bill through reconciliation during the current fiscal year.
Still, it is not clear whether Democrats have enough support from members of their own caucus. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said he and “six or seven” other Democrats oppose the plan’s corporate tax hike and would support the bill only if it undergoes serious changes.
“As the bill exists today, it needs to be changed,” Manchin said on Monday.
Meanwhile, the plan is also facing opposition from far-left progressives, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, D-N.Y., who argued the enormous $2 trillion slush fund is “not nearly enough.”
This is not nearly enough. The important context here is that it’s $2.25T spread out over 10 years.
For context, the COVID package was $1.9T for this year *alone,* with some provisions lasting 2 years.
Needs to be way bigger. https://t.co/eTQ7cxuTzF
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 30, 2021
