“If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it big!” In his recent announcement of a $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, President Biden said, “Every country in the world is investing billions of dollars in infrastructure, and we’re going to do the same.”
However, Biden’s “going big” has now been summarized by the GOP as the “big three”: big tax increases, big spending and big government. A number of Republican members of Congress said they support a “narrow” infrastructure plan, focusing on areas such as infrastructure and bridges, in addition, the Republican Party re-emphasized that any tax increase on businesses will affect the economic recovery.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader, Senator McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said Monday that they (Republicans) “will never support Biden’s infrastructure plan.
McConnell said the Republican Party supports a more “restrained” plan, and that the plan cannot be paid for by a tax increase on businesses.
Republican lawmakers: 30% of the budget is enough
White House officials have repeatedly said they hope the Republicans can explain “the full reasons for not liking the infrastructure plan” and “what their preferred infrastructure plan should contain”. After announcing the infrastructure plan, Biden met twice with cross-party members of Congress at the White House, and several officials in Biden’s cabinet held more than a dozen conference calls with lawmakers from both parties. However, the White House and Republican members of Congress are still unable to agree on a definition of “infrastructure.
“Infrastructure is not just about roads that allow traffic and horses to pass through.” “Infrastructure is about broadband, it’s about replacing lead pipes so people can get clean water, it’s about rebuilding our schools,” White House Press Secretary Leonardo Psaki said at a White House briefing Monday.
Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, said the plan would be more likely to have bipartisan support and a legislative victory for the Biden administration if the White House could scale back the infrastructure plan and focus on practical needs such as roads and bridges.
“Obviously, the Democrats think that infrastructure is one of those things that we need, that’s popular, and so add that to a big infrastructure plan.” Bronte said. “If you count bridges, highways, ports and airports, even the sewer system and broadband system, the money needed to repair those infrastructure systems would be less than 30 percent of this infrastructure plan. I think with 30 percent of the budget, we can get the infrastructure program done and even do some innovative projects.”
Controversial “slip of the tongue”
In “selling” the $2 trillion infrastructure plan to the American public, a number of Biden cabinet officials interpreted an important figure that raised concerns and questions. The data was given by Moody’s Analytics about how many jobs Biden’s infrastructure plan could create. The White House National Economic Council Director Deeds recently said in an interview with the U.S. media that the infrastructure plan could create 19 million jobs in the United States, according to Moody’s projections.
However, a White House official said on Monday that Deeds had previously made a “slip of the tongue”.
According to the forecast of Moody’s analysis cited by the U.S. media, if the new infrastructure plan is adopted, the U.S. economy will add 19 million jobs between the fourth quarter of 2020 and the fourth quarter of 2030, but even if the new infrastructure plan is not adopted, the U.S. economy will add 16.3 million jobs in this time period, therefore, the infrastructure plan itself will create jobs of 2.7 million, not 19 million.
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