Joe Biden Courts Critical Senate Democrats Needed for Partisan Infrastructure Push

President Joe Biden will meet Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) on Tuesday as the White House continues summoning key moderate Democrat senators to discuss an infrastructure bill.

The president also met with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on Monday.

Biden met with both moderate Democrat senators before his scheduled Wednesday meeting at the White House with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

The president has repeatedly voiced his desire to work with Republicans on the issue of infrastructure, but insists that Congress raise taxes to pay for his proposals.

But his bilateral meetings with Manchin and Sinema indicate Biden may be planning to pass an infrastructure bill using a partisan majority and budget reconciliation rules.

If Biden decides to abandon Republican infrastructure negotiations, he will need the support of all 50 Democrat senators, including the vocal moderates in the party.

Both Manchin and Sinema have at least partially resisted the more leftist agenda items proposed by Biden and socialists like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as key infrastructure investments.

Sinema joined Manchin in voicing opposition to ending the Senate filibuster and increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The Arizona senator has also suggested a more moderate tax hike of 25 percent on corporations to pay on his infrastructure bill, even though Biden has proposed raising the rate from 21 percent to 28 percent.