Biden announced a broad infrastructure plan that will spend over $2 trillion to create jobs and upgrade the country’s failing infrastructure.
Facing one of the darkest economic periods in U.S. history, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) set his New Deal plan into motion in 1933. Infrastructure and public works were at the core of FDR’s plan to counter the Great Depression by creating good jobs. Through the New Deal’s programs, roads, bridges, airports, hospitals, schools, dams and national parks were built across the entire country, with rural areas benefitting dramatically thanks to modernization efforts that focused on electrification and water resources. The initial phase of the New Deal saw the Public Works Authority inject over $63 billion in today’s dollars into the economy to complete over 34,000 projects, many of which are still in use today.
Now, nearly 80 years later, America faces a similarly dire economic situation, and a U.S. president will once again attempt to use a massive investment in infrastructure to rebuild the economy and help lead the recovery. Following through on his campaign promise, President Joe Biden has unveiled a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure plan that will modernize American infrastructure and provide equitable solutions for previously underserved communities.
On Wednesday afternoon, Biden unveiled his broad and aggressive infrastructure plan as the next phase in his bold vision to inject life back into the U.S. economy and workforce as they recover from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking in Pittsburgh—a city known for its contributions to American infrastructure and manufacturing, and the same city where he launched his run for the Oval Office in 2019—Biden touted his multifaceted approach to bringing the nation’s infrastructure up to par while creating jobs and opportunities for growth.
Biden’s plan proposes over $2 trillion in infrastructure spending over the next eight years, with funding for roads, bridges, housing, upgraded broadband across the country in areas that lack access to high-speed Internet, and drinking water projects. Here are the highlights from the proposal:
- Over $600 billion for transportation projects, including bridges, roads, public transit, ports, airports and electric vehicle charging stations
- $400 billion to improve care for elderly and disabled Americans
- Over $300 billion to upgrade electric grids, drinking water distribution networks and broadband access
- Over $300 billion to build and retrofit affordable housing and make upgrades to outdated American schools
- Nearly $600 billion for research into modern manufacturing and job training in emerging technologies
The goals of the plan include repairing 10,000 bridges, rehabilitating 20,000 miles of roads and highways, building over 500,000 electric vehicle charging points to create a true national network, and replacing 50,000 diesel public transit vehicles. Additionally, the plan will replace every remaining pipe in the nation’s drinking-water network and create universal access to broadband Internet. Biden plans to fund his infrastructure plan through an increase in the corporate tax rate. The previous administration lowered the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. In the current proposal, the rate will rise to 28 percent. Furthermore, Biden’s plan will increase the minimum tax rate paid by companies that attempt to use offshore tax havens to maximize profits and avoid paying taxes.
“These are investments we have to make,” Biden said of rebuilding outdated and deteriorated infrastructure. “We can afford to make them. To put it another way—we can’t afford not to.”
This infrastructure plan is still in its very early innings, but the proposal does set the groundwork for concrete policy in Congress, where both houses will likely present their own infrastructure proposals, incorporating details and goals from the Biden administration while also making their own modifications. Notably, the president has already begun a dialogue with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The tax increases are likely to be a nonstarter with Republicans, but Democrats can attempt to use reconciliation to pass an infrastructure bill—similar to how they passed the recent coronavirus recovery plan, known as the American Rescue Plan. GOP members of Congress have expressed support for these broad types of infrastructure projects, but their appetite to raise taxes or take on more debt at the federal level is low.
Whether or not Republican members of Congress are willing to support an infrastructure plan is ultimately unlikely to prevent its passage. Should the plan pass, it will be another campaign promise fulfilled for the Biden administration, with many of the proposal’s bullet points lifted directly from his campaign platform.
Who Benefits the Most?
If the infrastructure proposal does become law, every American will benefit in some form, whether from cleaner drinking water, safer roads, reduced traffic or cleaner air. Some communities, however, will benefit more than others. While Biden is not touting his proposal as some sort of “Green New Deal,” it is hard to miss the similarities between his policy proposal and FDR’s signature legislation.
FDR’s New Deal sought to provide infrastructure upgrades to rural parts of the country through modernization. There are no longer pockets of America without running water or electricity, but millions of U.S. citizens remain underserved in key areas. Rural and urban areas are held back by a lack of high-speed Internet. In an increasingly digital society, this severely cripples the potential for economic growth and holds back young students who have been more adversely affected than their suburban counterparts throughout the pandemic.
Marginalized communities in urban settings will also see heavy investments made in upgrading public transportation, building affordable housing, and providing safe and clean drinking water. Crumbling schools, a problem in both rural and urban areas, will also be modernized. Biden’s plan clearly targets areas of the country that have historically been ignored when it comes to infrastructure dollars.
While the proposal does fall short of some of the more progressive climate goals, it will include investment into cleaner, renewable energy sources and electric vehicles. Addressing climate change in some form must be a part of any modern infrastructure plan, and the Biden plan does that. Every single component of America’s built environment is subject to the ravages of climate change, a point driven home particularly hard by the recent disastrous power grid failure in Texas.
Funding research in these areas and driving adoption will also help spur job growth in fields focused on emerging technology that can be high paying and replace jobs that are phased out or lost as the energy industry transitions to renewable energy. The country can be driven forward without abandoning workers who currently work in industries that do not align with the long-term vision of a cleaner, greener energy future—at least that’s the pitch the president will have to make to skeptical union workers.
“They keep saying, ‘We’re going to transition you into solar jobs.’ That’s not how it works,” said Shawn Steffee, a leader of the Boilermakers Local 154 in Pittsburgh. “We build power plants, petrochemical plants and maintain steel mills.”
The onus is now on the president and his party to convince resistant workers that they can transition seamlessly to jobs in new industries without losing their hard-fought wages and benefits.
What Comes Next?
As stated above, laying out an infrastructure plan is just the first step to unlocking billions of dollars for construction projects. President Biden’s talking points and goals will serve as the framework of legislature in the House of Representatives and the Senate, both of which are narrowly controlled by Democrats. As with the coronavirus relief package, Congressional Democrats and the president will attempt to negotiate with Congressional Republicans but can ultimately pass their own bill without bipartisan support.
American infrastructure is crumbling, and this proposal is a path forward to stop the slow, steady deterioration of the systems that millions of people rely on every day to live healthy, productive lives. This plan attacks systemic problems on multiple fronts, injecting job-creating capital into a struggling economy, rebuilding aging and crumbling bridges and highways, improving services for neglected communities, and advancing technology and policy that will help stave off the effects of climate change. Joe Biden is no FDR, but his infrastructure plan is timely and exactly what the country needs.