Democratic leaders have been burned by Trump before.
President Trump and congressional Democrats have a deal to figure out a plan to spend $2 trillion on new infrastructure for the country. Consider us skeptical that this will amount to anything tangible.
That’s in large part because Trump has proven to be an extremely unreliable negotiator, unwilling to make decisions that upset his base.
Both parties recognize the need to revitalize the nation’s roads, bridges and public transport. But how to pay for it breaks down along partisan lines. Republicans don’t want to spend literally trillions of dollars of taxpayer money on this — which could mean either raising taxes or further increasing the deficit on their watch. Democrats are wary of any funding mechanism that could be seen as a handout to corporations, like private investment or giving tax breaks to developers to build roads.
« We want to hear his ideas on funding,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N. Y.) told reporters after Democrats’ meeting with Trump on Tuesday, calling that point “crucial. »
For now, Trump seems open to negotiating with Democrats on how to pay for this. Even agreeing to spend $2 trillion, in some form, is more in line with Democratic principles of big governance than Republican ones.
But “Chuck and Nancy,” as Trump likes to call the Senate and Democratic leaders, respectively, have been burned before by deals with him.
