CITY OF WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 31, 2021)—-President Joe Biden will unveil a $2 trillion plan to rebuild the nation’s aging infrastructure, support electric vehicles and clean energy. Biden’s plan will boost access to caregivers and their pay in a massive undertaking that would be the centerpiece of his economic agenda now that the COVID-19 vaccine third stimulus bill has passed Congress. Former President Donald J. Trump’s infrastructure bill resurfaces under the Biden’s administration and the leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Chuck Schumer who both met with the Trump’s administration and expressed excitement for a bill that both refused to support.
The White House dubbs the bill the American Jobs Plan, as a domestic investment not seen in the U.S. since the construction of the interstate highways in the 1950s and the Space Race a decade later.
Biden wants corporations to pay for the trillion dollar plan, by raising their taxes to pay for the eight-year spending package, according to an administration official. He will propose increasing the corporate tax rate to whopping 28% – erasing big tax cuts levels before passage of President Donald Trump’s tax cuts in 2017 – and overhauling how the U.S. taxes multinational corporations by increasing the minimum tax on U.S. corporations to 21%.
The President will unveil the plan Wednesday afternoon in a speech at a carpenters training center in Pittsburgh, where he will make the case for the “urgency of the moment” to “revitalize our national imagination and put millions of Americans to work right now,” the official said.
The bill is part of Biden’s larger “Build Back Better” agenda, with a separate proposal addressing health care, education and child care expected in April.
Biden faces a giant challenge politically to find Republican support in Congress for his legislative package, even as infrastructure generally has widespread bipartisan support. Republicans have balked at the suggestion of tax hikes and warned they would oppose a package that strays from core transportation infrastructure and tackles climate change and social justice.
The American Jobs Plan would pump $621 billion into transportation infrastructure and resilience, including the repair and construction of roads, bridges, transit and rail service.
That includes modernizing 20,000 miles of roads, fixing the most “economically significant” bridges in the U.S. and repairing 10,000 smaller bridges in poor condition.
Federal funds for transit projects would double under the plan. Biden also wants to direct $174 billion to electric vehicles: the construction of a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle stations, replacing diesel vehicles, electrifying bus fleets and offering tax incentives and rebates to make electric cars more affordable.
Another $213 billion in the plan would go toward retrofitting and building more than 2 million affordable homes, while $111 billion would replace all the nation’s lead pipes and service lines and upgrade drinking water wastewater and stormwater systems.
The plan would allocate $100 billion to upgrade and construct new public schools; $100 billion to build universal high-speed broadband infrastructure to reach all Americans; and $100 billion to upgrade the nation’s electric grid and investment in clean electricity.
The plan also sets aside $18 billion to modernize Veterans Affairs hospitals and facilities and $25 billion to upgrade child care facilities.
The tax overhaul, which the White House has labeled the Made in America Tax Plan, seeks to incentivize job creation and investment in the U.S., end profit-shifting to tax havens and ensure large corporations pay “their fair share,” according to the official.
The plan would eliminate a rule that allows U.S. companies to pay no taxes on the first 10% of return when they local investments in other countries.
Under the tax hikes and other reforms – eliminating tax loopholes for intellectual property and denying companies deductions for offshoring jobs, for example – the White House projects the spending would be fully paid in 15 years and reduce deficits in the years after.
The plan would target 40% of investments involving climate and clean energy to communities considered disadvantaged, according to the official.
A sweeping infrastructure plan has been talked about by both parties for years but never executed. Trump promised an infrastructure package but did not deliver one.
To build their case for trillions in spending, the White House said the U.S. ranks 13th globally in infrastructure quality, down from fifth in 2002, and significantly lags rival superpower China in infrastructure spending. More than one-third of America’s bridges need repairs, and one in every five highways are in poor condition.
The Democrats promised to work with then President Trump to passed a trillion dollar infrastructure bill during the Trump’s administration, but the leaders were able to filibuster away any hopes of repairing the nation’s infrastructure–or denying the bill a vote.
The Americans Jobs Plan is Biden’s second major policy proposal of his young presidency after he won approval for his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill earlier this month. Not a single Republican voted for that bill, known as the American Rescue Plan.
Source: AP News wrote the original article.