President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan has received little to no support from the GOP for its tax hikes, partisan add-ons, and having less than 6% of the proposal actually going to roads and cities. Only Democrats would spend less than half of the infrastructure bill on infrastructure.
The White House has accessorized the plan with political word lingo like “cares infrastructure,” which actually refers to funding for child care facilities and the elderly and disabled, not the infrastructure of potholes or for rebuilding bridges. The cares infrastructure, which is for home-based care for the elderly and disabled, will receive $400 billion. Out of the $2 trillion, the plan only spends about $115 billion to modernize bridges, highways, roads, and main streets that are in “most critical need of repair.”
The plan also includes $213 billion for home sustainability and public housing, $50 billion for National Science Foundation infrastructure “research,” $35 billion for climate change-related R&D, and $50 billion for a new “Commerce Department Office.” The new office would supposedly dedicate its time to monitoring domestic industrial capacity and funding investments to support the production of critical goods.
Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell also points out that the proposed tax hikes are not what the U.S economy needs right now, including a corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% and the global minimum tax from 13% to 21%. Even the U.S Chamber of Commerce, one of the largest business organizations in the world, has called the plan “dangerously misguided” and that it would slow the country’s recovery from COVID-19.
And now, even democratic Sen. Joe Manchin is arguing against the plan. He said about “six or seven other Democrats” feel very strongly against the hike in the corporate tax rate as well and that he would not support the bill. He argued that the corporate tax rates should be raised to 25%, no higher or lower. Former President Trump previously slashed the corporate rate from 35% to 21%. “As the bill exists today, it needs to be changed. If I don’t vote to get on, it’s not going anywhere,” Manchin adds.
By raising the corporate tax rate, the costs would be passed down to consumers and workers. Companies would be looking to keep their profits from sinking and would most likely lay off workers and drop shift hours. Grover Hermann Center’s Federal Budget director Matthew Dickerson pointed out that the people most affected by the brunt of corporate taxes are those that are “born by labor.” He said the tax raise combined with state corporate tax “puts us right back in the really dubious position of once again having the highest taxes on business.”
While White House press secretary Jen Psaki said she’d be happy to hear ideas and proposals on the plan, she has yet to talk about what that discussion would be. She said that President Biden is ready to answer questions on how to pay for the package, but did not address the corporate tax raise specifically.
As pointed out by McConnell, the plan is not about rebuilding America’s backbone but to just spend more money on the projects they want. In fact, more money is invested in electric cars than America’s roads, bridges, ports, airports, and waterways combined. There’s even an additional section of the plan that overrides right-to-work laws that would allow unions to extract dues from workers who do not want to be members.
The plan is nothing but pages of suggestions and government pet projects that put more money into the hands of D.C politicians and less into the hands of hardworking American people. We’ve heard the same “crumbling roads and bridges” mantra since Democrats started raising taxes.
