Hutchinson says Biden infrastructure plan too ‘extreme,’ criticizes price tag

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• Judy Woodruff:

  For more in reaction to the president's address and his long list of policy goals, I spoke a short time ago with Republican Governor of Arkansas Asa Hutchinson.

  Governor Hutchinson, thank you very much for joining us.

  Let me just start by asking you your thoughts on President Biden's remarks last night.

• Gov. Asa Hutchinson:

  Well, you can't hardly help but like the personality of President Biden.

  He comes across well. He presents his case. But, at the same time, as you listen to it, you have to be concerned about policy that, in the major address to Congress, he does everything to signal left. In other words, his policies are moving to the left.

  And the Democratic agenda, it is left to those that are asking for more extreme policies and more spending programs that are of great concern.

  And I looked at that and I just saw dollars, dollars, dollars that is going to increase our national debt and it's for spending programs that I think has a good chance of overheating the economy and putting inflationary pressure on the prices for consumers that's ultimately going to cost them.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Well, with regard to the things you're mentioning — and you mentioned the cost of the American Jobs Plan — the administration is calling it the American Families Plan.

  Among other things, they're talking about adding to the number of years of public education in this country from 12 years to 16 years, saying this is what the United States must do in order to compete with the rest of the world, especially China.

  What about that argument?

• Asa Hutchinson:

  Well, first of all, we need to increase our college graduation rates here in Arkansas, for example.

  But we have already, at the state level, made two-year colleges very affordable. We have set up loan programs. There's not any reason that someone cannot go through two years of college without going into debt. And so we're taking that initiative.

  Certainly, we need to hold down costs, but that's not what the federal government needs to concentrate on, which is spending programs that are federally directed and federally managed. And so there's two problems there. One is cost, and, secondly, that it's federally managed, and I think those would be harmful to us.

  All of the things that he's proposing, from childcare and reducing childcare expenses for working families, to lowering the cost of education, it sounds great, but you have to look at the cost of it and how that's going to be managed, and I think that's problematic.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Well, we know education is run at the local level. There would be federal money involved.

  But I also want to ask you about the infrastructure and the jobs proposal. We're hearing Republican criticism of that, but the president is saying this is what the country needs to do, that we have to get a — have a work force in place, we have to make sure that people are in a position to do the work that we're going to need in the years and the decades to come.

• Asa Hutchinson:

  Whenever you talk about an infrastructure plan, he needs to talk about traditional infrastructure, which is roads and bridges and airports and water systems.

  You do not need to laden that infrastructure plan with social programs. That confuses the American public and it's not true infrastructure.

  Secondly, I know he once again said we need to have bipartisan support. And there is communication going on, on the Republican side. The Republicans have presented a plan, but we have to get serious about getting this in a bipartisan fashion that is trimmed down, that is affordable, that really goes to traditional infrastructure in our country that is needed, but that it has to be an amount that we can afford.

  His is over the top in terms of cost, and then you add to that the American Families Plan. I think there is at least $6 trillion in spending. In Arkansas and in many states, we're going to have a hard time spending the money from the previous stimulus plans and packages that have come forth.

  We do not need to have that level of spending that's going to increase our debt significantly in the United States.

• Judy Woodruff:

  One other thing, Governor.

  We heard the president say last night that he welcomes Republican ideas, plans to meet with Republicans to talk about infrastructure, to talk about some of these other ideas, his anti-poverty measures, to talk about police reform.

  Do you think Republicans should work with and meet with the president?

• Asa Hutchinson:

  Absolutely. We should meet with the president. We should have discussions about a bipartisan infrastructure plan.

  I love Senator Tim Scott's response, and he's been leading the effort on police reform. These are things that we can agree upon. But the temptation always from the left is to push it too far, to push it to extreme.

  And the president has to show leadership here to say, no, let's look at what we can agree upon and get a dual plan through with bipartisan support. And the pressure he's under is ditch Republican support, let's go to the left and go to extreme and pass it that way.

  And that's not good for our country, and it's not good for bipartisanship, and it is not something that the American public needs or should stand for right now.

• Judy Woodruff:

  So, you don't sound optimistic that that kind of bipartisan effort is going to produce anything.

• Asa Hutchinson:

  Well, I'm hopeful.

  But if you look at the past, if you look at the first spending bill that came through, it was on a party-line basis vs. a bipartisan basis. And there was not a serious effort in reaching a compromise.

  The infrastructure, we hope, does not go down the same path. And so this is a test of his message last night, and whether he can be the Joe Biden that people look at and say he's moderate. But, at the same time, he always drifts left in the past.

  So let's change that pattern. I'm always optimistic, and I want them to meet. I would like to see a compromise on infrastructure. From a governor's standpoint, this is important for our country, a solid infrastructure plan that we talked about during the Trump administration. It didn't happen. It ought to happen now, but it needs to be done in a bipartisan way that's constructive in bringing people together and avoiding the extremes in that measure.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, thank you very much.

  Governor, good to have you with us.

• Asa Hutchinson:

  Thank you, Judy. Always good to be with you.