On
March 31, President Biden outlined a massive $2 trillion infrastructure
proposal. Here’s what’s included in the plan and how it’s funded.
(Blair Guild/The Washington Post)
The
White House’s unveiling of a $2 trillion jobs, infrastructure and green
energy proposal to reshape the U.S. economy met a chorus of opposition
late Wednesday, with Republicans panning it as a partisan wish-list,
some liberals challenging it as not sufficient to combat climate change
and business groups rejecting its proposed tax hikes.
Under what the administration calls the American Jobs Plan,PresidentBiden
aims to tackle some of the nation’s most pressing problems — from
climate change to decaying water systems to the nation’s crumbling
infrastructure.
In
a speech Tuesday afternoon at the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners of America Pittsburgh Training Center, Biden pitched his plan as
a transformative effort to overhaul the nation’s economy. He called it
the most significant federal jobs investment since World War II, saying
it would put hundreds of thousands of electricians and laborers to work
laying miles of electrical grid and capping hundreds of oil wells. He
said the plan’s research funding would make America the global leader in
emerging sectors such as battery technology, biotechnology and clean
energy.
“This
is not a plan that tinkers around the edges. It is a
once-in-a-generation investment in America, unlike anything we’ve done
since we built the Interstate Highway System and the Space Race,” in the
1950s and ’60s, Biden said.
“We
have to move now. I’m convinced that if we act now, in 50 years people
will look back and say, ‘This was the moment America won the future.’ ”
(The Washington Post)
The
administration’s promises are vast and may prove difficult to enact,
even if the effort can get through Democrats’ extremely narrow majority
in Congress. The immediate rejection of the plan by leading Republicans
suggested that the path toward a bipartisan compromise on infrastructure
would be very difficult to achieve, leaving the White House’s next move
unclear.
The
White House said the plan would enable drivers across the country to
find electric charging stations for their vehicles on the road. Every
lead pipe in the country would be replaced. All Americans would have
access to high-speed Internet broadband by the end of the decade.
Biden released the spending plan with a slew of tax hikes on businesses,
which could be the most contentious part of his proposal. The White
House said the proposal would pay for itself over 15 years because many
of the tax increases would remain even as the spending proposals only
last for eight years. Biden said on Wednesday that the plan would reduce
the federal debt “over the long haul.” Legislation in Washington is
typically evaluated on a 10-year budget window, and it is unclear
precisely what the plan would cost over a decade.
On
the tax side, Biden’s plan includes raising the corporate tax rate from
21 percent to 28 percent; increasing the global minimum tax paid from
about 13 percent to 21 percent; ending federal tax breaks for fossil
fuel companies; and ramping up tax enforcement against corporations,
among other measures. The White House is also proposing as much as $400
billion in clean energy credits for firms, although the cost of the tax
credit provisions is not detailed in what the administration has
released.
The
tax measures help Biden address concerns that his spending package
would add to an already large federal deficit, but provoked a torrent of
opposition from GOP lawmakers and business groups. Congressional
Republicans have also panned the tax increases as damaging to U.S.
investment and competitiveness and have pledged to oppose them. Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) denounced the measure. Sen. John
Barrasso (Wyo.), chair of the Senate Republican Conference, said it
amounted to an “out-of-control socialist spending spree” that reflected
“the left’s radical agenda.”
“There
is virtually no path to getting Republican votes. It’s too big, too
expensive and chock full of tax increases that are nonstarters among
Republicans,” said Brian Riedl, a former aide to Sen. Rob Portman
(R-Ohio) now at the Manhattan Institute, a libertarian-leaning think
tank.
Among
Democrats, the plan has been met by objections from lawmakers in the
Congressional Progressive Caucus, who say it is insufficient to meet the
scale of the threat posed by climate change. Centrist Democrats are
balking at another large spending package. Three House Democrats have
already vowed to oppose the package because it does not reverse a cap on
state and local tax deductions from former president Donald Trump’s tax
law.
And
a number of priorities critical to congressional Democrats, including
an extension on the expanded child credit, a major expansion in health
insurance coverage, subsidies for child care and free access to
community colleges, are being left to a second White House package to be
unveiled in coming weeks.
The
U.S. Chamber of Commerce strongly criticized the proposed tax hikes in a
statement on Wednesday, arguing that while infrastructure spending is
necessary “the users who benefit from the investment” should pay for it.
While
opening the door for negotiations with Congress over the details, the
White House is adamant about the need for a sweeping economic program
that goes beyond immediate coronavirus
relief. It cites the threat posed by climate change, the deterioration
of America’s infrastructure and the long decline of U.S. manufacturing.
But the White House may face a more difficult path for this package than
the stimulus plan, which unified congressional Democrats with
relatively little dissent.
Biden
promised to “bring Republicans into the Oval Office” to discuss the
infrastructure measure and promised a “good faith negotiation.” But he
said the plan had to be completed, suggesting Democrats may be willing
to try to pass it without Republican votes.
The
president phoned McConnell on Tuesday to brief him on the details
before the White House unveiled the infrastructure plan. McConnell, who
revealed the call during an event in Kentucky on Wednesday, signaled
he’s still not a fan of the proposal.
“It’s
like a Trojan horse,” McConnell told reporters, stressing the
Democrats’ new blueprint to upgrade roads, bridges, water ways and sewer
systems relies on “more borrowing and massive tax increases on all the
productive parts of our economy.”
Biden’s
plan devotes more than $600 billion to rebuilding America’s
infrastructure, such as its ports, railways, bridges and highways; about
$300 billion to support domestic manufacturing; and more than $200
billion in housing infrastructure. Other major measures include at least
$100 billion for a variety of priorities, including creating a national
broadband system, modernizing the electric power grid, upgrading school
and educational facilities, investing in research and development
projects, and ensuring America’s drinking water is safe.
Biden’s
plan also includes measures unrelated to either infrastructure or the
climate, such as an approximately $400 billion investment in home-based
care for the elderly and disabled that was a top demand of some union
groups. Additionally, the plan calls for passage of the Protecting the
Right to Organize (PRO) Act, a bill aimed at significantly strengthening workers’ rights to organize.
Biden’s
plan lays out a large investment in clean-energy and environmental
priorities. The programs include $100 billion to bolster the country’s
electric grid and phase out fossil fuels, in part by extending a
production tax credit for 10 years that supports renewable energy.
Biden, who has pledged to make the power sector carbon-free by 2035,
will also ask Congress to adopt an “Energy Efficiency and Clean
Electricity Standard” that would set specific targets to cut how much
coal- and gas-fired electricity power companies use over time.
Investing
in electric vehicles ranks among Biden’s top climate-spending
priorities, with $174 billion designated for that market alone. White
House officials predicted the federal incentives, paired with spending
by state and local governments and private companies, would establish a
national network of 500,000 charging stations by 2030, while spurring a
domestic supply chain that will support union jobs and American-built
cars and trucks.
The
plan will also replace 50,000 diesel transit vehicles, while switching
some 20 percent of the classic yellow school bus fleet to electric
engines.
Rep.
Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), who has been working on compromise
legislation to cut carbon emissions from cars and trucks, said this week
that funding charging stations and better transmission lines will be
key. “People aren’t going to buy electric vehicles until we have the
charging infrastructure and the electricity grid to support it,” she
said.
In
an effort to transition fossil fuel workers to other jobs, Biden’s plan
devotes $16 billion to employing Americans to plug abandoned oil and
gas wells and restore land that has been used for coal, hard-rock and
uranium mining. In his news conference last week, the president said the
workers would earn as much money sealing these wells as they would
drilling them. Another $10 billion would fund the establishment of a new
Civilian Climate Corps, which would employ people to restore landscapes
and help prepare communities for global warming’s damaging effects.
The
president will also ask Congress to provide $45 billion to replace lead
pipes across the country, while reducing lead exposure in 400,000
schools and child-care facilities. Some $56 billion would go to grants
and low-interest loans, for state, local and tribal governments to
upgrade aging water systems. Another $10 billion would be spent on addressing polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl (PFAS) chemicals that have contaminated drinking-water supplies across the country.
In
the area of housing, the proposal includes more than $200 billion for
housing programs, including $40 billion in public housing, although
housing advocates say they worry that may be insufficient to meet the
nation’s decaying housing stock.
“I
worry that only $40 billion for public housing will go too quickly —
the backlog at New York City Housing Authority alone is $40 billion —
and create winners and losers by underfunding the need,” said Paul
Williams, a former policy administrator with Chicago’s Department of
Housing.
Some
liberal lawmakers have said the overall plan does not go far enough,
noting that Biden called for $2 trillion in investments over just four
years during his 2020 campaign. Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said the package was a good start but
should be substantially larger. “This is not nearly enough,” Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said on Twitter about the Biden plan.
On
its own terms, the proposal would not resolve all of the nation’s
infrastructure woes, which have been growing for decades. The plan, for
example, cites a trillion-dollar backlog of needed road, bridge, rail
and transit repairs, but proposes less than that.
But
the Biden plan, if it passes Congress, would spur far-reaching changes
that could begin shifting the trajectory of the nation’s transportation
system. It calls for a dramatic doubling of federal funding for public
transit. Biden’s plan would also modernize 20,000 miles of streets and
highways out of the total of 173,000 miles Biden says are in poor
condition, while also addressing some of the tens of thousands of
bridges that need repairs.
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