Thread by @JakeSherman

>@PunchbowlNews AM's top this morning: "Our questions about Infrastructure Year"

@SecretaryPete said yesterday on @NicolleDWallace's show that he thinks this can be "Infrastructure Year."

Buttigieg sure hopes Congress keeps its money spigot on full blast to start rebuilding.

Here are our 9 questions about infrastructure.

1) The price tag. Congress is getting ready to approve nearly $2 trillion in Covid-related spending this week, and it’s being done on a party line vote. Will Washington have the stomach for another $1 trillion-plus bill?

Whatever Dems want has to pass the @Sen_JoeManchin test: Moderate Dems will have to be able to stomach it.

2) What’s the deadline? Its already March. We keep hearing July 4 as a deadline for infastructure. That seems possible, but tough. It may be helpful to set a deadline at some point in the summer. This round of Covid relief is getting done speedily because Congress had a deadline

3) Will Democrats aim for infrastructure to be bipartisan? Sen. Joe Manchin -- the alternate Senate majority leader, in many ways -- said he wouldn’t support an infrastructure bill that’s considered through the fast-track reconciliation process. This means WH needs to work w Rs.

4) Will Rs play ball? That’s a really good question. We can say with relative certainty @SenatorCollins will try to get in the mix here. She’s the ranking Republican of the transportation subcommittee on Appropriations and, as we know, she’s certainly interested

5) Will there be earmarks? The House and Senate need to come to a final agreement on earmarks, and they’re not quite there yet. But sure, there will likely be earmarks here. Either Democrats will do them unilaterally, or Republicans will join along.

6) Will Democrats raise taxes to pay for it? Well, if they try to raise the corporate rate back to 28%, you have to imagine that that would keep most Republicans on the sidelines. But they’ll have to pay for this legislation somehow. If its Dems only, they'll raise taxes.

7) How involved will the WH be? They will probably need to be more involved than they were day-to-day on Covid relief. process of putting that bill together was relatively linear. Yet an infrastructure package is different. Only WH can get this done

8) Who will be in the lead for the admin? We get this question a lot. Will it be @JoeBiden himself? @RonaldKlain? @SecretaryPete , who just might be interested in a big policy victory to set up a political future? @KamalaHarris ? The jockeying for position will be interesting

9) How expansively does DC define “infrastructure?” This is actually a key q. Any infrastructure bill will have to include a pile of green policies. How big is that pile and can Rs stomach it? Everyone is going to view this bill as a vehicle to get their policies thru the hill