Biden unveils $2T infrastructure plan
workshop of Collier’s carpenters training center.
The president’s plan rewards wealth so little that it’s funded by the wealthy. Mr. Biden said he has nothing against millionaires and billionaires, but it’s unacceptable that a middle class couple pays more in income tax than many multinational corporations who build factories abroad. He’s calling for corporate tax hikes, for penalties against companies that ship jobs overseas and for the Internal Revenue Service to crack down on corporations that fail to report or under report their incomes.
“I start with one rule: No one — let me say it again — no one making under $400,000 will see their federal taxes go up. Period,” Mr. Biden promised, saying that over the course of the pandemic, millions of Americans lost their jobs while the wealthiest 1% got richer.
Now, it’s time for the whole country to prosper, Mr. Biden said.
Mr. Biden’s plan, if passed the way he desires, would make a one-time investment of $2 trillion to be spent over eight years. It would include a $620 billion infusion into transportation infrastructure, including fixing the nation’s structurally deficient bridges and building new transit lines.
About $650 billion would go toward improving broadband access, replacing lead pipes and building affordable housing, according to the White House. Fixing 100% of the nation’s lead pipes would put plumbers and pipe fitters to work, Mr. Biden said, and ensure “every American, every child can turn on a faucet or a fountain and drink clean water.”
Another $ 400 billion would go into home and community-based care for seniors and people with disabilities, and $580 billion would be spent on research and development and manufacturing. The country used to spend 2% of its GDP on research and development, but now spends less than 1%, the president claimed.
The plan faces a difficult path in Washington, and critics have lined up to slam the cost of the package, the length of time it will take to pay it off — which Mr. Biden says would be 15 years — and the priorities the White House outlined.
Underscoring the debate was a statement by the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group that aims to educate the public on the impact of fiscal policies. Its president, Maya MacGuineas, acknowledging the president’s goal to pay for the package in full is “an important marker of fiscal responsibility,” said Congress should build a package that is at a reasonable cost — perhaps not $2 trillion — and is “economically justified” and “free of political favoritism.”
“In light of a record high, growing, and unsustainable debt, this infrastructure spending package should be paid for over a shorter time period than the 15 years they propose,” Ms. MacGuineas said in a written statement. “It is critical that new spending in the plan be credibly temporary, especially considering the unusually long window for offsets, and that dollars be spent effectively on true and worthwhile onetime investments.”
Leaders of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free- market think tank, warned against the plan, and its director for energy and environmental matters, Myron Ebell, once affiliated with former President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency, said it would be a “huge economic loser overall.”
“Higher taxes will depress economic activity and destroy private-sector jobs,” Mr. Ebell said in a written statement.
“The world is littered with gleaming new infrastructure projects no-one uses. Effective transit and transportation infrastructure must be based on where people want to go and how they want to travel,” CEI’s vice president for strategy, Iain Murray, added in a statement.
Mr. Biden warned that the rest of the world is closing in on the U.S., and it’s putting America at a competitive disadvantage. The country needs an edge in markets that are “up for grabs” like battery technology, computer chips and clean energy, he said.
“Critics say we shouldn’t spend this money. They ask, ‘What do we get out of it?’ Well, they said the same thing when we first flew into space for the first time,” Mr. Biden said.
The future, Mr. Biden said, should have clean energy at its foundation. The infrastructure plan would put electricians to work to build a “modern, resilient and fully clean” power grid and would cap hundreds of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells. It would give tax incentives to families who want to buy electric cars and trucks, and build a network of charging stations.
“Imagine knowing that you’re handing your children and grandchildren a country that will lead the world in producing clean energy technology and will need to address one of the biggest threats of our time,” Mr. Biden said, referring to climate change. “That’s what we’ll do.”
Mr. Biden was introduced by a union worker who deals with the electrical grid. Mike Fiore, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 29 and an employee of Duquesne Light, said the plan would mean a lot to workers who are ready to retool plants and revitalize the middle class.
“The [plan] is directed at communities like mine. It is about opening up opportunities, revitalizing local businesses and saving jobs,” Mr. Fiore said. “For decades, Pennsylvania was a global leader in manufacturing and good union jobs. It can be that way again.”
Unions will be a part of Mr. Biden’s plan in the same way they were part of its unveiling.
The venue itself houses a four-year apprentice program that turns aspiring carpenters into union journeymen under the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. On normal days, the workshop where Mr. Biden spoke requires eye protection and hard hats, but the millmen, millwrights and pile drivers weren’t on the floor for a speech given during a global pandemic.
After the event, Mr. Biden snapped photos with local union leaders, including Darrin Kelly, president of the Allegheny/Fayette Central Labor Council; Nina Esposito-Visgitis, president of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers AFT Local #400; Ralph Sicuro, president of the Pittsburgh Fire Fighters, IAFF Local #1; and Thomas M. Conway, international president of the United Steelworkers.
And one of the president’s biggest rounds of applause from local officials came when he said the middle class built America, and “unions built the middle class.” The applause came from the front right of his podium, where Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, U.S. Reps. Conor Lamb, D-Mt. Lebanon, and Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey were seated.
The four federal officials greeted Mr. Biden at the Pittsburgh International Airport, where the president participated in another photo line that included Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, state Sen. Jay Costa, State Reps. Joanna McClinton, Austin Davis and Malcolm Kenyatta and Pennsylvania Democratic Party chairwoman Nancy Patton Mills.
This marked Mr. Biden’s first visit to Pittsburgh as president. In describing his plan, he called it “big” and “bold.”
“In fact, it’s the largest American jobs investment since World War II. It will create millions of jobs, goodpaying jobs,” Mr. Biden said. “It will grow the economy, make us more competitive around the world, promote our national security interests, and put us in a position to win the global competition with China in the upcoming years.”