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Biden visits Lake Charles Thursday to push his infrastructure plan in GOP stronghold of Louisiana

The president directly challenged the Republicans whose dogma has been that low taxes for corporations and the wealthy will fuel economic growth.




“I’m willing to hear ideas from both sides," said Biden. ”I'm ready to compromise. What I’m not ready to do is, I’m not ready to do nothing. I’m not ready to have another period where America has another Infrastructure Month and it doesn’t change a damn thing.”

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Even as he engages with Republicans in Washington, Biden is trying to sell their voters on the idea that higher corporate taxes can provide $115 billion for roads and bridges and hundreds of billions of dollars more to upgrade America's electrical grid, make the water system safer, rebuild homes and jump-start the manufacturing of electric vehicles. To drive home the point, he also toured a water plant in New Orleans.


"You’re entitled to be a millionaire, be a billionaire, just pay your fair share," said Biden. “I’m not looking to punish anyone. I’m sick and tired of corporate America not doing their fair share.”


“I find more support from Republican governors and mayors and Democratic governors and mayors around the country," Biden said, “because they’ve got to answer the question: Is life better in this town, this city, this state than it was before I got elected?”

To emphasize that point, Biden was introduced in Lake Charles, which still has blue tarps where roofs once were and plywood replacing glass in office buildings, by a Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, and the city's Republican mayor, Nic Hunter. Hunter outlined his many political differences with the president before focusing on their common ground.







Biden brushed off that talk, noting that as vice president he was “able to get a lot done” with McConnell during the Obama era. And after landing in New Orleans ahead of his water plant tour, he spent time on the tarmac talking with Louisiana's two Republican senators, John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy. But the president's true audience has been Republican voters, not GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill.


Hurricanes battered Lake Charles, a city of 78,000 residents, twice last year over six weeks. Trump, whose administration's planned “Infrastructure Weeks” became noted for being anything but, had promised to fix the city's bridge were he to be reelected.


