The White House has unveiled a massive $2-trillion infrastructure bill. And while it may be called an “infrastructure bill,” to Republicans it looks like a goody bag of left-wing spending.
Republican Sen. Roy Blunt says only about $615 Billion of the $2-trillion actually goes for infrastructure improvements.
“There’s more in this package…for charging stations for electric vehicles –$174 Billion– than there is for roads, bridges, airports, and ports,” Blunt told ABC’s This Week program.
The bill includes $213 billion for so-called sustainable and affordable housing, $400 billion to expand home or community-based care for seniors and people with disabilities, and $174 billion for programs to build a national network of 500,000 electric-vehicle chargers by 2030.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told ABC, “We’re going to have auto workers, union auto workers I hope, making cars one way or the other, why not have them leading the revolution into electric vehicles, which by the way there is a very hot competition for.”
Blunt said if the administration could have kept the bill focused on infrastructure needs, it would have sailed through Congress with bipartisan approval.
But Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm indicated to CNN the White House is willing to pass the bill without Republican support, raising the possibility of using a budgetary maneuver that limits the number of votes needed to pass, meaning Vice President Kamala Harris might once again cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate.
In addition to the wasteful spending is the means to pay for it – a hike in the corporate income tax from 21% to 28% and an increase in taxes on companies’ foreign earnings.
Secretary Buttigieg said, “Corporations, we all know, have not been paying their fair share.”
But after Donald Trump pushed American companies to return their factories to the U.S., Republicans are worried the tax hike will encourage corporations to leave again, taking jobs with them. “We’d go back to the first or second-highest corporate tax in the world which works at our disadvantage.”
And some Democrats don’t like the bill – either because it will hurt business or doesn’t spend enough on their favorite left-wing causes.
Bernie Sanders wants more money for climate change and student debt.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says the last thing the economy needs is “a big whopping tax increase” on all of the productive sectors of the U.S. economy.
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