President Joe Biden on Wednesday offered up a massive $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan that would usher in a new era of government spending and engagement on projects that have been neglected or delayed while expanding the very idea of "infrastructure" to include a host of domestic needs."It's not a plan that tinkers around the edges. … It's a once-in-a-generation investment in America," Biden said at a speech at the Carpenters Pittsburgh Training Center. "It's the largest American jobs investment since World War II. It's big, yes. It's bold, yes. And we can get it done."The plan – billed as an investment on par with the Interstate Highway System and the space race – would address traditional infrastructure projects, such as modernizing 20,000 miles of roads, repairing more than 10,000 bridges and improving the electrical grid, broadband and water supply pipes to reduce lead in drinking water.But it also goes further in its definition of "infrastructure" to address social problems. The measure would use federal dollars to expand child care, boost long-term care under Medicaid, offer free access to community colleges and pay for community violence prevention programs, among many other items.The package would be paid for by a hike on corporate taxes, raising the rate to 28% from the 21% set by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It does not include an individual income tax hike on people making more than $400,000 a year, as Biden discussed during his campaign, nor the always-unpopular increase in the gasoline tax.The president said he was open to other financing measures but would not accept anything that raised taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year. He said he has spoken with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel, Kentucky Republican, adding that he would be inviting GOP lawmakers to the Oval Office to discuss the plan."Critics say we shouldn't spend this money. They ask, 'What do we get out of that?' Well, they said the same thing when we flew into the space for the first time," Biden said.The president's plan is ambitious in both a policy and political sense. Presidents in both parties have commonly bemoaned the poor state of the nation's infrastructure and pledged to repair and modernize it, promising the job creation would make up for the big spending.But such efforts have consistently failed – even after such dramatic moments as the deadly collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis in 2007. The term "Infrastructure Week" has become a political punchline, as an example of a priority that an administration trumpets but never achieves.The Biden plan would take the nation back to a more traditional era, when the federal government took responsibility for things like assuring the functionality and safety of roads, bridges and drinking water. Spending in the Biden proposal includes $115 billion for roads and highways, $85 billion for mass transit and $80 billion to ease repair backlogs at a favorite Biden transportation operation, Amtrak.The package has multiple programs aimed at reducing climate change, including $174 billion for grants and incentive programs to create a national network of 500,000 electric car chargers. That's a critical step in encouraging the more environmentally friendly vehicles, says Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management professor David Besanko, who teaches courses in public economic and infrastructure strategy."It's a chicken-and-egg thing," he says, wherein people are reluctant to buy an electric car if they'll end up stranded on the highway with no charging station nearby.The package also has $650 billion for "at home" infrastructure, including retrofitting homes, building and upgrading public schools, providing broadband internet to rural areas and replacing lead pipes to ensure clean drinking water.Further afield from the traditional infrastructure domain, the package would expand home-based care for seniors, boost wages for caregivers and call for passage of a law strengthening workers' right to organize.The nation is "long overdue in making a big national commitment to getting public works and infrastructure into good order," Besanko says. But what's notable about the Biden plan, he says, is that it goes way beyond basic transportation and public works programs, including proposals meant to thwart climate change, and make community college and housing more affordable."All of those things are outside the domain of traditional infrastructure," Besanko says.They also could imperil the package in Congress, where there is opposition in both parties to various parts of the plan.A study released Wednesday by the Georgetown University Center for Education and the Workforce, for example, found that a hypothetical 10-year, $1.5 trillion plan aimed at traditional infrastructure would generate 15 million jobs, reviving the blue collar economy.But adding in the other items will likely make passage of the package harder, says Nicole Smith, chief economist at the Georgetown center and one of the authors of the report."It's everything under the sun," Smith says. "Traditional infrastructure has a lot of bipartisan appeal. Sometimes what causes the stalemate is, 'I don't want the bridges and the quote-unquote welfare,'" Smith says. "When you make it a social issue (plan), that makes it a lot more difficult."And while the notion in general is popular – a Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday morning found that 54% of Americans support a massive infrastructure plan even if it includes tax increases for both corporations and wealthier Americans – the big price tag is already drawing criticism from conservative circles.Congressional Republicans, who passed a $2 trillion tax cut in 2017, have already indicated they will oppose tax hikes. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday issued a statement applauding the idea of making infrastructure a "top priority" but said making corporations pay for it was "dangerously misguided."Democrats, too, are pushing back. Several Democratic lawmakers from higher-tax states are insisting they will not vote for a tax package that does not lift the cap on state and local tax deductions imposed in the 2017 GOP bill.Progressives, meanwhile, are calling the package way too small."The important context here is that it's $2.25T spread out over 10 years. For context, the COVID package was $1.9T for this year *alone,* with some provisions lasting 2 years. Needs to be way bigger," tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat.Biden's plan would span eight years, although some shovel-ready projects would be completed earlier. The financing would take longer – 15 years – unusual in a city where federal budgeting is not planned out beyond a decade because of the uncertainties of the economy.The White House said they are open to different funding mechanisms if members of Congress have other ideas.Biden wants a bipartisan agreement, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters en route to Pittsburgh. She said they expect the process to take longer than the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which was presented as an emergency package with aid that could not be delayed.
Biden Begins Long, Uphill Battle to Pass Infrastructure Package
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