It will be expensive.
It’s big.
And controversial.
President Biden and Congressional Democrats are preparing trillions of dollars in new spending for a comprehensive infrastructure plan.
While proponents welcome the proposal as a bold investment in the future, detractors call it an expensive cousin to the Green New Deal.
A part of the plan is called the THRIVE Act. It means “Transform, Cure and Renew, Investing in a Vibrant Economy”.
“” THRIVE’s agenda will invest $ 1 trillion a year for the next 10 years. Therefore, $ 4 trillion spent during the first term of the Biden-Harris administration, “said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass.
That level of spending alarms many Republicans – after Congress disbursed a whopping $ 6 trillion in response to the pandemic and relief in the past 13 months.
“Even after what we did last year, our national debt has grown to the size of our economy, which has not happened since World War II,” said Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
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The democratic plan goes far beyond conventional infrastructure, such as repairing or replacing deteriorating bridges and highways, taking into account climate change and other impacts.
“You cannot separate the climatic part of this vision because every road we repair, every bridge we build, we can do this in a way that is better for the climate or worse for the climate,” said Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg, to the CNN. “Why wouldn’t we want to create these jobs in a way that is better for the climate?”
The Democrats plan also aims to address social inequalities.
“If you can’t have clean water, then you can’t be free. If you don’t have access to clean air, then you can’t be free. If you don’t have a sustainable, sustainable community to live in, then you won’t be free. If you don’t have a decent job. If you don’t have basic health care, “said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.
Ed Markey says the plan will “combat systemic racism” and “protect public health”. But Republicans frame the bill as something else.
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“This is a wish list by Biden and Nancy Pelosi for liberal and leftist agenda items. This is the Green New Deal. This is the universal health care system, all brought together in one, at the expense of you and me,” said the deputy Kat Cammack, R-Fla., on Fox News.
Republicans accuse Democrats of trying to promote liberal policy goals under the guise of a typically bipartisan infrastructure project.
“It is a Trojan horse, designed to get all sorts of progressive and left-wing items to pass through Congress under the auspices of new roads and bridges,” protested former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in Fox Business.
Biden clearly stated that the bill would raise taxes for large corporations and the wealthy.
“The responsible thing to do is to propose a way to pay for it, over time,” said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki. “He also believes there is more to be done to make the corporate tax code fair.”
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According to the proposal, the corporate tax rate would likely jump from 21% to 28%, raising about $ 700 billion. The tax cuts enacted under former President Donald Trump would be eliminated and the maximum individual rate of almost 40% for those earning more than $ 400,000 a year would be restored.
“The goal [of Democrats] is to bring resources into government control, “said one critic, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and former congressional budget director.” We are not allowing families to decide whether to save for retirement or take a vacation. “
Holtz-Eakin argues that Democrats’ tactics distribute money “first in the hands of elected officials, and then in the agencies, to determine what it does in the economy”.
Democrats support long-overdue tax code reforms.
“The infrastructure pays for itself,” said Deputy Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Co-President of Progressive Caucus. “… But the goal is to make the tax system fair and just.”
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Long and long hard work on a huge infrastructure project can reveal Democratic fissures – especially when it comes to narrow majorities in the House and Senate.
Democrats can only approve of it if they stick together, but there are already signs of trouble with moderates on one side and progressives on the other.
Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., for example, called for an even more comprehensive infrastructure bill at a city hall meeting this week.
Passing the infrastructure law will be a drag. There was an initial conversation about bringing it to a vote before Memory Day. Now, July 4th is on the radar. A more realistic estimate is seven to eight months.
Pelosi refused to give a deadline, saying this week he would advance the package when it is “ready”.
The bill is perhaps the biggest incentive to Congress since the FDR’s New Deal programs in the 1930s. Democrats can save just three votes on their side and still pass the bill without the help of the Republican Party in the House. The Senate is split 50/50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting all the decisive votes.
Keeping Democrats going is going to be hard work. Representatives Bill Pascrell, DN.J., Josh Gottheimer, DN.J. and Tom Suozzi, DN.Y., are already pushing for a restoration of state and local tax deductions (SALT). Trump tax law has limited these deductions in high-tax states.
“New York and New Jersey are the largest net donors to the federal government and contribute more than we receive annually,” lawmakers said in a statement. “Therefore, we will not accept any changes to the tax code that do not restore the SALT reduction and return justice to the system.”
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The task faced by Democrats is reminiscent of Obamacare in 2009 and 2010. The mechanics of the committees began in the spring of 2009. The House passed the first version of the bill in November 2009; the Senate on December 24. The House and Senate did not approve the final, unified version of the bill until March 2010.
This time, Democrats may be facing legislative fatigue. They spawned six major bills to deal with the pandemic, culminating in the $ 1.9 trillion aid package a month ago.
Here is the problem for Democrats: they may face internal opposition from moderates if the bill is too big. If they discard progressive policies, they lose liberals.
The potential solution is to scale the package to an old-fashioned infrastructure and enlist bipartisan support.
President Clinton burned his political capital very early in his mandate for a health care project. President Obama almost did the same thing, approving a stimulus package early in his term. Lawmakers were already recovering from the approval of the TARP project to rescue the economy in the fall of 2008. That is why the approval of Obamacare was such an epic rise.
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Even FDR had trouble moving the New Deal forward. Many of his Congress supporters abandoned other initiatives in the late 1930s.
“Presidents have only a limited amount of political capital. Usually, they can do one, two or maybe three things if they are lucky. People start to get tired, especially when you are spending a lot of money,” said Darrell West of the Brookings Institution .
“Members [of Congress] can only receive a small number of difficult votes. They may be willing to do the first and the second. But eventually, he catches up with them. “