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Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Democrats should expect zero support from his party for President Joe Bidens new big-ticket infrastructure and social spending proposals.

Speaking Monday at the University of Louisville, McConnell said Republicans may be flexible on the price tag for a counteroffer on infrastructure made by a group of GOP senators, but Bidens proposals the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan were too expensive.

I think I can pretty safely say none of my Republican colleagues are going to support a $4.1 trillion infrastructure package, only part of which is for infrastructure, McConnell said.

He pointed to the offer made by Republican ranking members of the Senate committees that would work on an infrastructure bill, a plan with a gross cost of $568 billion but which Democrats have criticized as too small and not providing enough new money, in contrast with Bidens plan, which has been described as new money on top of existing planned spending.

Read more: Senate Republicans opening bid on infrastructure: $568 billion

Asked if that amount was a hard cap on how high Republicans were willing to go on infrastructure , McConnell said it wasnt.

If its going to be about infrastructure, lets make it about infrastructure. And I think theres some sentiment on the Democratic side for splitting it off, he said.

Democrats face a variety of choices to make in the coming weeks about how to proceed. Do they use a process called budget reconciliation again, allowing them to pass a bill without any Republican votes in the Senate? Do they pass one bill with both Bidens infrastructure and social spending plans with a gross cost of about $4 trillion but which the administration says would be paid for with tax changes over 15 years or split the proposals up into separate bills?

McConnell said single, big package would not garner Republican support.

I dont think there will be any Republican support none, zero for the $4.1 trillion grab bag that has infrastructure in it but a whole lot of other stuff, he said.

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McConnell predicts 'zero' Republican support for Biden jobs and families plan - MarketWatch

NEWS TO KNOWOur daily roundup of headlines from Virginia and elsewhere.

The percent positivity rate for COVID-19 tests in Virginia dipped below 5 percent for the first time in more than six months.Virginian-Pilot

In Virginia, 2021 was the best chance yet to elect a Black politician and possibly the first Black woman in any state to the governors mansion. But with five weeks until the commonwealths Democratic primary, Terry McAuliffe, its white male former governor, is on track to secure the nomination easily.Politico

Opponents of Del. Glenn Davis in the GOP nomination contest for lieutenant governor are turning to anti-LGBTQ messaging, including anonymous text messages that describe him as a gay Democrat and criticize his support for removing a now-defunct constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.Washington Post

Policing experts are divided on whether police correctly handled a traffic stop in Windsor that went viral after video showed officers pointing their guns at a U.S. Army lieutenant. I understand that they probably got their adrenaline pumped up because he wasnt pulling over right away. But they need to come down off of that high when they get into the gas station.Daily Press

Del. Betsy Carr, D-Richmond, says she plans to reintroduce legislation that would stop local governments from keeping fines collected during traffic stops. Police are incentivized if theyre going to get money from it just to make more traffic stops, and a lot of time Black and brown folks are the people who are bearing the brunt of this.WVTF

Appalachian Power customers could see their monthly bills rise by $22 if it secures approval for a series of future rate hikes.Roanoke Times

Officials at Riverside Regional Jail in Prince George County are disputing a state panels recommendation that the facility be shut down, arguing that inmate deaths are not always preventable for any jail.Progress-Index

A strike at a Volvo plant in Pulaski County ended. Union leaders said workers achieved significant gains toward fair pay, benefits and job security protections, but details of the agreement are not yet public.Associated Press

Researchers from Virginia Tech and the U.S. Forest Service are studying sustainable production techniques for ramps, which are at risk from over-harvesting as their popularity with foragers continues.Roanoke Times

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Statewide percent positivity rate dips below 5 percent, Republican lieutenant gov candidate accused of being 'a gay Democrat,' restoring ramp...

Jonathan Capehart:

What stays with me, Judy, is what I told you Wednesday night, the idea that we have a president of the United States who speaks to the country, doesn't go on about grievance, doesn't go on about personal grievance, doesn't sprinkle his speech with white nationalism, isn't all me, me, me, me, me.

What we saw on Wednesday night was a president of the United States who was focused outward, many times in his speech, because of you, meaning because of you, meaning the American people, because of all of you, the folks in the room. It was about working together, solving the country's problems, or at least trying to.

And that, for me is the enduring image. And, also, you got the sense that, even with the sparse crowd in that room that could hold 1,600, but there were only 200, and socially distanced, at least for me, watching on television, there was still that energy there. There was still this optimism coming from President Biden, who, after, at that point, 99 98, 99 days, had accomplished a lot.

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Brooks and Capehart on Republican ideals, Biden's joint address and agenda - PBS NewsHour

Its the only strategy for a Republican Party that would rather lie than legislate.

That mendacity strategy has reached an insidious pitch. The New York Post, the conservative tabloid owned by Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch, recently published a cover story about children at migrant centers receiving copies of Superheroes Are Everywhere, a picture book authored by Harris when she was a senator. Other media outlets fact-checked the story to pieces turns out there was a single copy at a center in Long Beach, Calif., donated at a book drive and Post officials acknowledged the story as fake. The reporter, who claims she was ordered to write it, resigned.

That only came after the GOP Outrage Machine cranked it up to 11. Various Fox News hosts yapped about it on their shows, including white supremacy avatar Tucker Carlson. Republicans including Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana posted angry tweets accusing Harris of profiting from the border crisis with books bought with taxpayer money.

At the same time, Larry Kudlow, Trumps former economic advisor, was spewing lies that Bidens Green New Deal targets would mean that America has to stop eating meat, stop eating poultry and fish, seafood, eggs, dairy, and animal-based fats. Overheated and ridiculous, that fake news was kept afloat for days by right-wing media.

Yet even when the lies are debunked, the damage is already done.

And thats the goal. These mistruths have a social media afterlife unencumbered by facts. Its about lies fashioned to reinforce ideology and confirmation biases. Harris didnt put copies of her book into migrant centers for profit, but for those who already dislike her, it sounds like the kind of calculated thing they imagine she would do. Biden isnt taking away meat, seafood, or eggs, but it sounds like the sort of nanny-state nonsense that conservatives often accuse Democrats of concocting to curtail American freedoms and independence.

Taken at face value, it all seems silly, even harmless. Yet that obscures the darker underside of these constant falsehoods.

On Jan. 6, Michael Fanone, a D.C. Metropolitan Police officer, was pummeled by insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol in an attempt to thwart the certification of the 2020 presidential election. He suffered a heart attack and a concussion, but what has happened since the seditious riot has been no less painful.

Its been very difficult seeing elected officials and other individuals kind of whitewash the events of that day or downplay what happened, Fanone told CNNs Don Lemon in an emotional interview. Without mentioning the former president who incited his supporters to go to the Capitol, Fanone called his rhetoric dangerous.

Some Republicans, like Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, claim that the insurrection, which killed five people and injured more than 130 police officers, was not an insurrection at all. That misdirection is working. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that about 50 percent of self-identified Republicans say the insurrection was a mostly nonviolent protest or was fueled by left-wing groups to make Trump look bad. And 60 percent are still clinging to the Big Lie that the election was stolen.

Of course, Republican disdain for the truth is nothing new. When Vincent Foster, a Clinton White House staffer and longtime friend of the president and first lady Hillary Clinton, died by suicide in 1993, conservatives accused the Clintons of murder. With Barack Obamas presidential candidacy came the racist birtherism movement falsely claiming that he was ineligible to run because he was born in Kenya. Then came the alarmist lies about so-called death panels, an attempt to derail passage of the Affordable Care Act, President Obamas signature achievement.

Its not an alternative reality. Its anti-reality, a fractured narrative of rumors and conspiracies designed to justify white fear and stoke its attendant rage.

GOP lies will only grow more grandiose and provocative in an attempt to upend the Biden presidency. And the closer we get to the crucial midterm elections next year, what Republicans may do or say to retake majority power in the House and Senate could make the Big Lie look like a dress rehearsal.

Rene Graham can be reached at renee.graham@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @reneeygraham.

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The Republican Partys big little lies - The Boston Globe

Washington Republican lawmakers were critical of President Biden's first address before a joint session of Congress, arguing that the president did not offer enough bipartisan outreach in his speech. Mr. Biden outlined his ambitious legislative agenda on Wednesday, calling on Congress to allocate trillions of dollars in spending to improve infrastructure, health care and education.

In the official Republican rebuttal to Mr. Biden's speech, Senator Tim Scott said that Mr. Biden "seems like a good man," but argued that his policies were divisive.

"His speech was full of good words. But President Biden promised you a specific kind of leadership," Scott said. "Our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes. We need policies and progress that bring us closer together. But three months in, the actions of the president and his party are pulling us further and further apart."

Republicans have balked at the price tags for Mr. Biden's American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan, which he touted in his speech on Wednesday. He also called for raising taxes for the top 1% wealthiest Americans and corporations, which most Republicans oppose.

"There's just a lot of talk about new spending and a lot of talk about new taxes, I worry about the economy being able to handle that. So I just disagree with the president on higher taxes," Republican Senator Rob Portman told reporters Wednesday night.

The president promised on Wednesday that he would not impose any tax increases on Americans making under $400,000 per year, but argued that "it's time for corporate America and the wealthiest 1% of Americans to just begin to pay their fair share." He also proposed raising the top tax bracket for the wealthiest 1% of Americans to 39.6%, noting that this was the rate when George W. Bush became president.

"You have pretty expansive spending on top of spending with the only way to pay for it, is to go after taxes," Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski told reporters after the speech. "I think it makes it very difficult for it to be truly bipartisan."

Senator John Thune, the Republican minority whip, praised Mr. Biden's delivery but argued that his proposals for government spending would ultimately be unpopular with the American people.

"You're talking about a speech that's got massive expansive new government programs growth of government and lots in new taxes, so there isn't much in there that I can agree with," Thune told reporters. "But I thought he did a nice job, as he always does, of making his argument in a way that I think probably gives him the best chance of trying to win over the American people. But I think when they see when they drill down on the policies, they're going to discover that there's a lot there they're not going to like."

Republican Senator Mitt Romney told reporters that he thought the speech probably appealed to Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent who caucuses with Democrats and is famously one of the most progressive members of the Senate.

"I'm sure Bernie was happy," Romney said. "I think with the experience we've had with the $1.9 trillion rescue plan, he would like Republicans to vote for his plan. But in terms of meeting in the middle, that hasn't something hasn't been something the administration has shown yet."

Congress used budget reconciliation to pass the American Rescue Plan, allowing Mr. Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief proposal to be approved without any Republican votes. Reconciliation is a complicated process that allows legislation to advance in the Senate with only a simple majority of votes, instead of the 60 that is typically required. As Democrats only control 50 seats, it is nearly impossible to garner support from 10 Republicans to advance their biggest legislative priorities. Democrats are considering using budget reconciliation again to pass the American Jobs Plan.

Meanwhile, a group of Republican senators have proposed their own $538 billion infrastructure bill as an alternative to Mr. Biden's plan. In his speech on Wednesday, Mr. Biden encouraged bipartisan action, but said that inaction was not an option.

"Vice President Harris and I meet regularly in the Oval Office with Democrats and Republicans to discuss the American Jobs Plan. And I applaud a group of Republican Senators who just put forward their proposal," Mr. Biden said.

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Republican lawmakers critical of Biden's first congressional address - CBS News