Biden: Infrastructure proposal will create 19 million new jobs

President Joe Biden said the sweeping infrastructure proposal he unveiled this week would create 19 million jobs to further boost the U.S. economy’s trajectory coming out of the pandemic.

“Independent analysis shows that if we pass this plan the economy will create 19 million jobs,” Biden said in remarks at the White House Friday. “Good jobs, blue collar jobs, jobs that pay well.”

Biden’s $2.25 trillion “American Jobs Plan,” announced Wednesday, aims to update the country’s physical and technological infrastructure, and address longstanding economic inequities in the nation.

The proposal emphasizes new union jobs, and making it easier to unionize. It also aims to create employment through programs such as a new Civilian Climate Corps, construction on affordable housing, and efforts to clean up abandoned mines or cap old oil wells.

According to a rough outline of the spending plan provided by the White House this week, the proposal envisages the following (some of these amounts could be overlapping):

• $50 billion for the National Science Foundation, which “will focus on fields like semiconductors and advanced computing, advanced communications technology, advanced energy technologies, and biotechnology,” according to a White House document.

• $30 billion in research and development aimed at spurring jobs in rural areas.

• $40 billion to upgrade physical infrastructure of research labs in federal and university settings.

• $35 billion for clean energy projects in a “full range of solutions needed to achieve technology breakthroughs that address the climate crisis and position America as the global leader in clean energy technology and clean energy jobs,” according to the White House document.

• $15 billion for climate change-related demonstration projects.

• $50 billion for semiconductor research and manufacturing.

The overall plan would be spread over eight years and, if approved by Congress, would mark a significant reversal of the steady decline in U.S. government spending on science, research and technology.

In recent years, spending on science and research and development has been a routine target for budget cuts, according to a 2020 report from the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs.

The report noted that in the previous two decades, half of federal research funding was set aside for life sciences. Of that amount, 80% went to the National Institutes of Health, and yet NIH’s budget has been “essentially flat since 2004,” the report said.

In contrast to the United States, research and development spending in China has increased in double-digit percentages for years with the goal of spending 2.5% of its GDP on it, according to the AAAS. That figure includes government and other sources of funding.

The White House pointed to a report by Moody’s Analytics when asked about Biden’s estimates for job creation. The April analysis found that the Biden plan would “marginally reduce growth” next year, as higher taxes on corporations to pay for the initiatives would take effect before the added infrastructure spending or projects take off.

But that would shift toward added growth and jobs starting in 2023. Moody’s projected that under Biden’s first term as president employment would increase by 13.5 million jobs, compared with 11.4 million jobs without the infrastructure plan.

Biden responded Friday to criticism that higher taxes on businesses could hold back hiring or growth.

“Asking corporate America just to pay their fair share will not slow the economy at all,” he said. “It will make the economy function better and create more energy.”