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- GOP Senators introduced a $928 billion counteroffer to Biden's $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan.
- Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said their plan is not a "serious" offer and leaves out women.
- She, along with other Democrats, also criticized the GOP idea to repurpose stimulus aid to fund infrastructure.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
A group of Republican senators unveiled their $928 billion counterproposal to President Joe Biden's infrastructure plan, increasing the price tag from their first $568 billion counteroffer.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was not impressed with this new plan.
"I don't really think this is a serious counteroffer," Warren told MSNBC following the release of the plan.
-Stephanie Ruhle Reports (@RuhleOnMSNBC) May 27, 2021
The past few weeks in the White House have been filled with Oval Office meetings attempting to get Republicans on board with Biden's $4 trillion infrastructure plan. After a GOP group – led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia – met with Biden to discuss their original $568 billion proposal, the White House countered that with a $1.7 trillion proposal, down from its initial price tag of $2.25 trillion on the American Jobs Plan.
And on Thursday, the Republicans brought a $928 billion offer to the table, largely focused on funding for physical infrastructure, and only a $257 billion increase in new government spending beyond what Congress has already authorized.
Warren criticized the plan for lacking a clear funding method and only suggesting repurposing already allocated stimulus funds.
"First of all, they don't have pay-fors for this, it's not real," Warren said. "They have this illusory notion of how we're going to take money that's already been committed to other places and other spending."
She added that women are also left behind in this package because while Biden's American Families Plan proposed significant investments in childcare, the GOP offer does not allocate any funding toward care-economy measures.
"Millions of women are out of the workforce right now and one out of four says the reason [for that]: I can't get childcare," Warren said. "This is our chance to expand our idea of what infrastructure means. Give women who want to work a real chance in the workplace," she added.
Other Democratic lawmakers joined Warren in criticizing not only the GOP plan, but the idea of using stimulus aid to pay for it instead of the corporate tax hikes Biden had originally proposed.
"They're talking about using the child tax credit to pay for this," Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet told reporters. "This is a significant tax cut for working people. Ninety percent of America's kids - more than that - are going to benefit. It's going to cut childhood poverty almost in half so I really don't understand their desire to raise taxes on working people."
And Insider reported that 14 state treasurers are urging Congress to refrain from repurposing stimulus money to fund infrastructure, given that the aid is much needed to sustain economic recovery for state and local governments.
"This is called a jobs bill. It's infrastructure and jobs," Warren said. "So long as we're investing in roads and bridges and lots of concrete, about 90% of those jobs are going to be for men. But when we're talking about childcare, those jobs are nearly all going to women and those jobs today pay far too little. We have a chance to turn those into good paying, professional jobs."