Beyond bridges: Biden redefines infrastructure to include people

WASHINGTON – Beyond roads and bridges, President Joe Biden is trying to redefine infrastructure not just as an investment in America the place, but in its workers, families and people.

As the president prepares to unveil the first part of his “Build Back Better” package Wednesday in Pittsburgh, new details and proposals are emerging of a massive investment on par with the New Deal or Great Society programs.

Swelling to $3 trillion or $4 trillion, with higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy expected to be proposed to pay for it, the new package is transforming the old ideas of infrastructure investment into a 21st century concept that includes developing the human capital of America’s population.

“He’s talking about physical infrastructure and we’re talking about human infrastructure,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said in an interview Tuesday.

Sanders is encouraging the White House to go even further by lowering the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to at least 60 and expanding its health benefits to include dental care, eye glasses and hearing aids for seniors. He said new benefits could be paid for by allowing the federal government to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices.

“I think the president understands that we have enormous structural problems in how we protect working families in this country,” he said.

The White House is taking a two-pronged approach to this next big package. Biden is rolling out the proposed traditional infrastructure investments Wednesday, with more proposals to come to expand child care, pre-kindergarten education and other domestic investments.

At a briefing Tuesday for the top lawmakers of both parties, the administration shared plans for investing in public health facilities, child care, schools, transportation and broadband, according to a Democrat familiar with the call and granted anonymity to discuss it. The human capital investments are expected next, the Democrat said.

Funding Biden’s infrastructure initiative with tax hikes has been controversial. But the administration appears to have decided on using many of the tax hikes proposed during the campaign, said a U.S. Chamber of Commerce official, who discussed private conversations on condition of anonymity. This would most notably include raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%.

The White House hopes to take a more deliberate and collaborative approach with the lawmakers than it did on the emergency COVID-19 rescue package, Biden’s first big priority to be signed into law.

Even though Republicans were invited to join Tuesday’s briefing, key GOP leaders are already panning the package as too big and too costly for them to support.

“It seems like President Biden has an insatiable appetite to spend more money and raise people’s taxes,” said Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the GOP whip, in an interview.

Scalise predicted that, if approved, the new spending and taxes would “start having a negative impact on the economy, which we’re very concerned about.”

Sweeping in scope, the ambitious plan aims to make generational investments in infrastructure, revive domestic manufacturing, combat climate change and keep the United States competitive with China, according to administration officials.

Though the White House is emphasizing the urgency, it also insists this will not be considered an emergency response like the $1.9 trillion virus relief bill that Biden signed into law over Republican objections in mid-March. The administration wants to see progress on the new legislation by Memorial Day and have it passed over the summer, White House officials said.

Biden’s approach is about “making an investment in America,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

“Not just modernizing our roads, our railways