Penna Dexter

The president has released his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan. He wants bipartisan buy-in and it’s true that infrastructure bills often pass with strong bipartisan support. But, when we think of infrastructure, we think of airports, ports, waterways, bridges, and highway systems. Only about 7 percent of the proposed spending for this plan is devoted to such projects. Add infrastructure-related projects like upgrading water systems, expanding high-speed broadband, modernizing the electric grid, and improving infrastructure resilience and you have 24 percent of the plan’s spending. The rest is devoted to a progressive wish list. There’s $100 billion to “upgrade or replace crumbling school buildings.” There’s money for “affordable housing,” for care for the elderly, for recharging stations for electric cars, and for union organizing. The White House calls this “The American Jobs Plan.” The Washington Post’s Henry Olsen calls it the “American Central Planning Plan.” The plan does fund jobs — government-preferred occupations, many of them green. It even creates a “Civilian Climate Corps.” “Infrastructure” bills are not efficient at creating jobs. And with unemployment falling, do we really need this stimulus? The “American Jobs Plan” puts Washington D.C. at the center of funding for all projects, with federal grants in exchange for compliance with federal rules and mandates. This increases costs, crowds out private sector solutions, and often advances national agendas over local needs. Infrastructure projects that are local in nature, such as school construction and repair, and work on local water lines, are the responsibility of state and local governments. But senators plan to pass this national power grab using reconciliation, which requires only a majority — 51 votes. The White House expects to fund this legislation with a range of corporate tax hikes, reversing the good done by the Trump tax cuts, destroying jobs rather than creating them, and pouring cold water on the economic recovery we’re experiencing. Wise lawmakers will oppose this “infrastructure” bill that is really a giant expansion of federal power.