After declaring bipartisanship dead, McConnell says infrastructure deal ‘still possible’

No one in Washington was particularly surprised when Mitch McConnell declared “the era of bipartisanship” to be “over” earlier this week after President Joe Biden rejected Republicans’ latest offer on an infrastructure spending package.

To the most cynical, it was an outcome eagerly sought by the Senate Minority Leader. But the timing of his pronouncement was certainly curious, if not premature.

At the same time McConnell uttered those words, a handful of independent-minded Republican senators were still huddling with centrist Democrats in Senate corridors about a potential compromise that focused on the size of investment and how to pay for it. Meanwhile, Biden administration officials were still courting a small group of GOPers.

By the next day, McConnell had to retreat from his ironclad statement. He was listening to his colleagues again, he said, while also declining to bequeath his blessing on this extended burst of bipartisanship. On Thursday, he was back to saying a deal was “still possible.”

“We haven’t given up hope that we’ll be able to reach a deal on something really important to the country that we really need to accomplish,” McConnell said Thursday morning on Fox News, underlining his opposition to tax hikes to pay for new roads, bridges and ports. “There are other ways to credibly pay for a major infrastructure bill and I think there’s a good chance we can get there.”

The man known as the grim reaper of legislation had lowered his scythe, at least momentarily.

To avid McConnell watchers, the Republican leader is sending distinct signals he’s ready to turn the defensive afterburners up on the Democratic agenda. “They’ve put forward an agenda that is designed to fail. And fail it will,” he said ominously Monday on the Senate floor.

McConnell looks across the aisle and sees unity fraying among a fragile Democratic caucus that needs every single vote to do anything. He glances at the calendar and knows if he can stall the Democratic agenda by even a month’s more time into the summer, it could pay dividends for his party by the next calendar year.

He reviews the weeks of bipartisan negotiations he OK’d and figures his caucus has shown enough of the country they’ve attempted to work with Biden’s Democrats, even if they didn’t concede as much as the president did. He calculates there’s no good reason to hand Biden a $1 trillion infrastructure spending bill with his party’s imprimatur -- a chit Biden can later use to bolster his party’s standing when he campaigns for vulnerable members in re-election fights next year.

McConnell’s initial statement may end up being right.

But he also understands the political optics around Washington’s kumbaya attempts and doesn’t want his party to be saddled with the blame of blowing up bipartisanship.

This is especially true given that the Biden administration is still beating that drum, holding out even the slimmest of hopes that they can attract a few Republicans to support even a portion of a bill designed to rebuild America.

“These conversations have progressed, they continue to progress. We’re making progress, it’s not always pretty but that’s the legislative process,” said Brian Deese, the director of Biden’s National Economic Council, during an Axios virtual event on Wednesday. “One thing that you can expect from President Biden is that he is not going to stop reaching out, he is not going to stop looking for areas to find common ground … His only red line is inaction.”

Traveling aboard Air Force one enroute to Suffolk, England for Biden’s first overseas voyage, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said there are still “multiple paths forward” for the American Jobs Plan.

“It takes some patience at times, that there are going to be moments where we’re near death, and then it comes back,” Psaki said. “That’s always how policymaking, lawmaking, bill-making happens.”

It’s ironic that amid the souring prospects of a bipartisan infrastructure bill, the Senate in fact accomplished something very bipartisan -- a $250 billion federal investment in science and technology research to stay competitive with China. The bill, if passed by the House, will provide $50 billion for domestic production of semiconductor chips that are used in a variety of products, from smartphones to automobiles.

The U.S Innovation and Competition Act, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer christened as “a turning point for leadership in the 20th Century,” included 20 amendments -- including one by Sen. Rand Paul -- and netted 19 Republican votes, including McConnell’s.

“Support for this act shows that bipartisanship is possible by spreading the benefit over a large number of states,” said Shashi Shekhar, a technology scholar and professor at the University of Minnesota. “Since infrastructure investments are also needed in almost all states, I sincerely hope that this momentum for bipartisanship will carry over to the U.S. infrastructure initiative.”

Looking elsewhere beyond infrastructure, the opportunities for bipartisanship, let alone the ability to attract 60 votes, look fleeting. Republicans stood united to kill a Democratic-bill designed to ensure pay equity among men and women in the workplace. McConnell said it was written to force workers to “opt out of, rather than into, class-action suits.”

“In other words, a gift-wrapped bonanza for the trial bar,” he charged.

Prospects for Democrats’ hopes on voting reforms and gun control are also falling apart.

The latest shot at infrastructure -- involving Sens. Mitt Romney, Susan Collins and Bill Cassidy -- could just as swiftly die as the one led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.

But McConnell’s careful re-calibration on bipartisanship this week shows there are still incentives to at least act like it’s a goal.

“We have a small window to achieve a bipartisan deal that is real, that is whole, that brings in Republicans, that makes Democrats happy,” said Jose Borjon, a former Democratic deputy chief of staff on Capitol Hill. “We’re in a wait-and-see moment but the clock’s ticking and we don’t have a lot of time.

“We’re trying to test: is [bipartisanship] over or is it not? This is a telling bill, this is a telling time.”

After his more markedly upbeat remarks on Fox, McConnell marched to the world’s most deliberative body on Thursday and returned to a more dour tone on the state of talks.

A mere hour after espousing hope for a deal, McConnell castigated Biden and Democrats for walking away from “good-faith” bipartisan efforts.

“Until Democrats get serious, the road ahead for consensus action on our nation’s infrastructure will only get steeper,” he said.

The Senate’s grim reaper was again sharpening his scythe.

McConnell supported the last infrastructure package. What’s different now?