Tag: Biden American Jobs Plan

In a Bipartisan Meeting, Biden Makes the Case for His Infrastructure Plan

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The president met with lawmakers from both parties in an effort to show some flexibility on the size of his $2 trillion proposal and how to pay for it.

WASHINGTON — Facing opposition from Republicans and some centrist Democrats to parts of his $2 trillion infrastructure proposal, President Biden on Monday convened a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House, hoping to make progress toward a deal that can pass a bitterly divided Congress.

Sitting in the Oval Office with the group, Mr. Biden said he was “prepared to negotiate as to the extent of the infrastructure project, as well as how we pay for it.”

The meeting was an effort by the White House to show that it was willing to at least consider proposals to scale back or reshape the package and listen to alternatives to its own plan to pay for it by raising taxes on corporations. Continue reading.

American Jobs Plan: The Need for Action in Minnesota

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For decades, infrastructure in Minnesota has suffered from a systemic lack of investment. The need for action is clear:

Minnesota’s infrastructure received a C grade on its Infrastructure Report Card. The American Jobs Plan will make a historic investment in our nation’s infrastructure.

  • ROADS AND BRIDGES: In Minnesota there are 661 bridges and over 4,986 miles of highway in poor condition. Since 2011, commute times have increased by 8.6% in Minnesota and on average, each driver pays $543 per year in costs due to driving on roads in need of repair. The American Jobs Plan will devote more than $600 billion to transform our nations’ transportation infrastructure and make it more resilient, including $115 billion repairing roads and bridges.
Continue reading “American Jobs Plan: The Need for Action in Minnesota”

Democrats see political winner in tax fight

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As President Biden races ahead with a mammoth plan to bolster the nation’s infrastructure, Democrats are gambling they’ll get a political boost from an accompanying proposal: the tax hikes designed to defray the massive costs.

Biden on Wednesday outlined a slate of tax reforms aimed at raising $2.5 trillion — much of it from large corporations — to underwrite the new infrastructure spending. The proposal was quickly roasted by Republicans, who have long portrayed Democrats as the party of higher taxes and are now warning that Biden’s plan would hurt small businesses and kill American jobs.

Yet national polls have consistently revealed that tax hikes on corporations and other wealthy taxpayers enjoy strong support among a broad array of voters, including independents. And some Democrats are practically drooling at the prospect of bringing that debate to the national stage to highlight the GOP’s resistance to a popular concept. Continue reading.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn: Taking care of our elders is a waste of taxpayer dollars

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She’s also voted to strip health care from Americans with preexisting conditions and deny parental leave to federal employees.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Wednesday criticized President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion jobs and infrastructure proposal, the American Jobs Plan — specifically because it includes funding for caretaking of the elderly.

“President Biden’s proposal is about anything but infrastructure,” she tweeted, alongside an image superimposed with large text reading, “400 BILLION TOWARDS ELDER CARE.”

Biden’s plan proposes to allot approximately $400 billion, disbursed over an eight-year time period, toward care for the elderly and those with disabilities. The funding is specifically intended to bolster “home- or community- based care” for these groups, and would extend Money Follows the Person, a Medicaid program which aims to move elderly nursing home residents back into home-based care. Continue reading.

Biden-GOP infrastructure talks off to rocky start

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President Biden’s bid to secure bipartisan support for his $2.25 infrastructure package is off to a rocky start.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a close Biden ally, says there will be only one month set aside to hammer out a deal with Republicans and right now it’s nowhere near to happening.

Biden is already sniping with key moderates such as Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). Continue reading.

Economist Paul Krugman: Republicans have no meaningful objections to Biden’s infrastructure plan — they simply ‘want him to fail’

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Having recently signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 — a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief/economic stimulus package — President Joe Biden is now promoting an ambitious infrastructure plan. Many Republicans, not surprisingly, are railing against the plan. Liberal economist Paul Krugman discusses their opposition this week in his Times column, stressing that Republicans have no meaningful objections to it — they simply want to see Biden fail as president.

“Republicans have been having a hard time explaining why they oppose President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan,” Krugman explains. “Their real motives aren’t a mystery. They want Biden to fail, just as they wanted President Barack Obama to fail, and will once again offer scorched-earth opposition to anything a Democratic president proposes. And they’re especially opposed to public programs that might prove popular, and thereby help legitimize activist government in voters’ minds.”

Because “laying out those true motives” would not “play well with the electorate, Krugman writes, Republicans are “looking for alternative attack lines”—for example, arguing that “most of the proposed spending isn’t really infrastructure.” Continue reading.

New Poll: Biden Jobs Plan Favored By 73 Percent Of Voters

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The vast majority of Americans back President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan, according to a new poll from Data for Progress and the pro-infrastructure group Invest in America.

But that has not stopped congressional Republicans and their corporate funders from attacking the infrastructure plan.

The April survey of likely voters found 73 percent support the $2.25 trillion investment plan, compared to just 21 percent who oppose it. Even among Republicans, 57 percent said they back Biden’s proposal, while 38 percent oppose it. Continue reading.

Biden’s Tax Plan Aims to Raise $2.5 Trillion and End Profit-Shifting

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The plan detailed by the Treasury Department would make it harder for companies to avoid paying taxes on both U.S. income and profits stashed abroad.

WASHINGTON — Large companies like Apple and Bristol Myers Squibb have long employed complicated maneuvers to reduce or eliminate their tax bills by shifting income on paper between countries. The strategy has enriched accountants and shareholders, while driving down corporate tax receipts for the federal government.

President Biden sees ending that practice as central to his $2 trillion infrastructure package, pushing changes to the tax code that his administration says will ensure American companies are contributing tax dollars to help invest in the country’s roads, bridges, water pipes and in other parts of his economic agenda.

On Wednesday, the Treasury Department released the details of Mr. Biden’s tax plan, which aims to raise as much as $2.5 trillion over 15 years to help finance the infrastructure proposal. That includes bumping the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 21 percent, imposing a strict new minimum tax on global profits and cracking down on companies that try to move profits offshore. Continue reading.

Scoop: Dem-aligned group launches 6-figure infrastructure push

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A Democrat-aligned advocacy group is kicking off a six-figure campaign backing President Biden’s mammoth infrastructure spending measure —starting with ads targeting constituents of Sens. Joe Manchin and Susan Collins — the group tells Axios.

Why it matters: The American Working Families Action Fund (AWFAF) is one of the first groups to announce the launch of an independent digital and TV advertising effort aimed at selling the proposal to Congress and the public.

  • It will include a trio of videos and TV and digital ads targeting residents of West Virginia and Maine, states represented by Manchin, a Democrat, and Collins, a Republican — two senators crucial to the measure’s fate. Continue reading.

The GOP claim that only 5 to 7 percent of Biden’s plan is for ‘real infrastructure’

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“You look at this bill, the $2 trillion in the bill that, only about 5 to 7 percent of it is actual roads and bridges and ports and things that you and I would say is real infrastructure and that we tried to get passed under the last administration with President Trump.”

— Russell Vought, former director of the Office of Management and Budget, on the “Brian Kilmeade Show” on Fox News Radio, April 1

Republicans are trying to brand President Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan with a new talking point, claiming there is barely any infrastructure in it.

Different variations of this GOP claim have begun to surface since Biden unveiled his proposal last week. Vought, who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Donald Trump, pushes the criticism to misleading extremes by saying that only 5 to 7 percent “is actual roads and bridges and ports and things that you and I would say is real infrastructure.”

Granted, the Biden plan includes large expenses such as $400 billion to expand home-care services and more than $100 billion in electric-vehicle incentives and purchases, among many other items that do not fit the traditional definition of public infrastructure as concrete-and-steel structures for transportation, and wires and pipes for utilities. Continue reading.