Tag: Biden infrastructure plan

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.

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.

Biden jobs plan seeks $400 billion to expand caretaking services as U.S. faces surge in aging population

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White House, lawmakers remain at odds over broader spending package.

President Biden’s jobs plan proposes a massive investment in home care for the elderly and people with disabilities, as America’s caretaking system faces strain from the nation’s looming demographic challenges.

The White House’s American Jobs Plan calls for spending about $400 billion over eight years on “home- or community-based care” for the elderly and people with disabilities. That amounts to roughly a fifth of the overall price tag of Biden’s plan, the first of two related economic proposals expected from the White House.

The push to substantially expand in-home health-care services was one of the last major provisions added to the jobs plan, according to two people with knowledge of internal White House deliberations. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters they were not authorized to disclose. Continue reading.

White House hopes to see infrastructure bill passed by summer

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President Biden hopes to see Congress pass his infrastructure and climate proposal by this summer, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday, setting a slightly longer timeline than his recently enacted coronavirus relief package.

Psaki told reporters at an afternoon briefing that the extra time will allow for more White House negotiations with congressional Republicans and Democrats, particularly since the legislation does not carry the same level of urgency as the American Rescue Plan that was signed into law last month.

Still, she said Biden would like to see “progress” by the end of May. Continue reading.

Nobel Prize-winning economist: Biden’s spending plan could help US break out of a ‘bad equilibrium trap’

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A Nobel Prize-winning economist is lauding President Joe Biden’s proposed $4 trillion infrastructure spending plan as he believes the plan could revitalize the United States economy. 

During an exclusive interview with Axios, Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz offered his take on Biden’s plan. Not only is he endorsing the president’s plan but also looking forward to the positive effects and how it could help the country break out of its “bad equilibrium trap.”

“We’ve been for the last two decades in an abnormal environment, we’ve been in a bad equilibrium trap,” he said. “The inequality means people don’t have demand, a lack of demand means we don’t invest, so we’ve been in a very bad, vicious circle and I’m optimistic that this may break us out into a new period of strong growth, which is more egalitarian.” Continue reading.

Biden’s Big Bet: Tackling Climate Change Will Create Jobs, Not Kill Them

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WASHINGTON — In 2017, as Donald J. Trump was announcing the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, the largest global effort to attack planetary warming, he declared, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”

On Wednesday, President Biden traveled to Pittsburgh to try to make the opposite case: that the workers Mr. Trump was appealing to have more to gain from combating climate change than to lose.

It is going to be a tough bet. To Mr. Biden, a $2 trillion infrastructure plan is about creating union jobs, hundreds of thousands of them, in wind and solar power, electric cars and road- and bridge-building. Even those more basic infrastructure projects would have a climate angle: the new roads and bridges would be built to withstand the high waters and brutal storms of a changing climate.

“I am a union guy. I support unions, unions built the middle class. It is about time you start to get a piece of the action,” Mr. Biden said in Pittsburgh. Continue reading.

White House unveils $2 trillion infrastructure and climate plan, setting up giant battle over size and cost of government

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Ahead of speech in Pittsburgh, Biden administration releases sprawling effort to revamp U.S. transit, broadband, housing and more

The White House’s unveiling of a $2 trillion jobs, infrastructure and green energy proposal to reshape the U.S. economy met a chorus of opposition late Wednesday, with Republicans panning it as a partisan wish-list, some liberals challenging it as not sufficient to combat climate change and business groups rejecting its proposed tax hikes.

Under what the administration calls the American Jobs Plan, President Biden aims to tackle some of the nation’s most pressing problems — from climate change to decaying water systems to the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.

In a speech Wednesday afternoon at the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America Pittsburgh Training Center, Biden pitched his plan as a transformative effort to overhaul the nation’s economy. He called it the most significant federal jobs investment since World War II, saying it would put hundreds of thousands of electricians and laborers to work laying miles of electrical grid and capping hundreds of oil wells. He said the plan’s research funding would make America the global leader in emerging sectors such as battery technology, biotechnology and clean energy. Continue reading.

Sen. Dibble, Rep. Hornstein, and Rep. Long statement on President Biden’s Infrastructure Investment Plan

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SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL-Minneapolis), DFL-Lead on the Senate Transportation Committee, Rep. Frank Hornstein (DFL-Minneapolis), Chair of the House Transportation Committee, and Rep. Jamie Long (DFL-Minneapolis), Chair of the House Climate and Energy Committee released the following statement this afternoon following President Biden’s announcement of a $2.2 trillion infrastructure investment plan:

“We applaud President Biden for today’s release of a bold, visionary plan to invest in America’s infrastructure. We support the President’s emphasis on improving roads, bridges, public transportation, and building a clean energy economy. As Minnesota state legislators, we strongly agree with the plan’s focus on building a strong economy and addressing the climate crisis.

Next week, House and Senate DFLers will release detailed plans to invest in Minnesota’s transportation and energy infrastructure with a focus on job creation, equity, and action to address climate change.”

Biden to unveil major new spending plans as Democrats eye bigger role for government

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The president is set to tout key components of an infrastructure overhaul and the early contours of his 2022 budget

President Biden this week is set to begin sketching out his plan to commit trillions of dollars toward upgrading the country’s ailing infrastructure, fighting climate change and bolstering federal safety net programs, as Democrats try to usher in a new era of bigger government — and spending — in the aftermath of the coronavirus.

The forthcoming proposals reflect a broader political shift underway in Washington, where Democratic leaders have sought to capitalize on their 2020 election victories to advance once dormant policy priorities and unwind years of budget cuts under administrations past.

But Biden’s aggressive agenda also may test his stated support for bipartisanship — after passing his $1.9 trillion stimulus plan without any Republican support — as well as the public’s willingness to embrace the sizable tax increases on wealthy families and profitable companies that may be necessary to help finance the burst in federal spending. Continue reading.