'Look how rapidly its recovered since we passed the last piece of legislation. And that legislation was $1.9 trillion,' he continued. 'If we don't invest in this country, we're going to fall behind even further.'

Melvin cited the $6 trillion figure - the cost of the already-passed COVID relief bill and then Biden's proposed American Jobs Plan and his American Families Plan - and asked if it was wise to spend so much money while the economy was still in recovery mode due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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Biden continued to signal Thursday that he was much more willing to spend time in negotiations with Republicans on the infrastructure bill - the American Jobs Plan - which has a current price tag of $2.3 trillion and could be paid for, in part, by moving back up the corporate tax rate. 

'We rank No. 8 in the world in terms of infrastructure, for God's sake,' he told NBC's Craig Melvin in a 'Today' show interview that aired Friday. 'Is the private sector going to go out and build billions of dollars worth of highways? Ports? Airports? Bridges? Are they going to do that?'  

Biden wasn't impressed by what a group of 10 Republicans had offered him during COVID relief negotiations.  'Like last time they come in with one-fourth or one-fifth of what I'm asking for and login budaya4d say that's our final offer,' Biden recalled.