Via an email from Railroad Workers United, here’s what is in the proposed infrastructure plan from President Biden and the Democrats as well as the tax plan to pay for it, direct from the White House.
If all you’ve gotten is soundbites and news snippets, you really can’t begin to grasp how ambitious this is and how comprehensive it attempts to be. The news stories that just focus on the assorted objections and particular bones of contention are failing to convey how much more is on the table.
Ideally, all of the networks should each devote at least an hour news special to all of this — but don’t hold your breath. President Biden and his cabinet should schedule a national press conference to talk about this, in prime time. The networks and cable channels should carry it live. After all the air time they gave the former guy, they owe us bigly. Again, don’t hold your breath.
One more observation. Before Reagan, we used to refer to these kinds of programs under the heading of Public Works. Republicans aren’t that thrilled with the idea of a public anything, let alone a public good. Combining Public with Works returns to the idea that there are humans at the heart of this, and it is about much more than just concrete and steel.
I am going to list just prefaces and the headers here — there’s much more detail at the link for each of the headers. I’ve tried to format this to give an idea of the overall structure of the jobs plan and the tax plan. This is the summary version — you may want to save it for a reference.
March 31, 2021
While the American Rescue Plan is changing the course of the pandemic and delivering relief for working families, this is no time to build back to the way things were. This is the moment to reimagine and rebuild a new economy. The American Jobs Plan is an investment in America that will create millions of good jobs, rebuild our country’s infrastructure, and position the United States to out-compete China. Public domestic investment as a share of the economy has fallen by more than 40 percent since the 1960s. The American Jobs Plan will invest in America in a way we have not invested since we built the interstate highways and won the Space Race.
The United States of America is the wealthiest country in the world, yet we rank 13th when it comes to the overall quality of our infrastructure. After decades of disinvestment, our roads, bridges, and water systems are crumbling. Our electric grid is vulnerable to catastrophic outages. Too many lack access to affordable, high-speed Internet and to quality housing. The past year has led to job losses and threatened economic security, eroding more than 30 years of progress in women’s labor force participation. It has unmasked the fragility of our caregiving infrastructure. And, our nation is falling behind its biggest competitors on research and development (R&D), manufacturing, and training. It has never been more important for us to invest in strengthening our infrastructure and competitiveness, and in creating the good-paying, union jobs of the future.
Like great projects of the past, the President’s plan will unify and mobilize the country to meet the great challenges of our time: the climate crisis and the ambitions of an autocratic China. It will invest in Americans and deliver the jobs and opportunities they deserve. But unlike past major investments, the plan prioritizes addressing long-standing and persistent racial injustice. The plan targets 40 percent of the benefits of climate and clean infrastructure investments to disadvantaged communities. And, the plan invests in rural communities and communities impacted by the market-based transition to clean energy. Specifically, President Biden’s plan will:
- Fix highways, rebuild bridges, upgrade ports, airports and transit systems.
- Deliver clean drinking water, a renewed electric grid, and high-speed broadband to all Americans.
- Build, preserve, and retrofit more than two million homes and commercial buildings, modernize our nation’s schools and child care facilities, and upgrade veterans’ hospitals and federal buildings.
- Solidify the infrastructure of our care economy by creating jobs and raising wages and benefits for essential home care workers.
- Revitalize manufacturing, secure U.S. supply chains, invest in R&D, and train Americans for the jobs of the future.
- Create good-quality jobs that pay prevailing wages in safe and healthy workplaces while ensuring workers have a free and fair choice to organize, join a union, and bargain collectively with their employers.
BUILD WORLD-CLASS TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE: FIX HIGHWAYS, REBUILD BRIDGES, AND UPGRADE PORTS, AIRPORTS AND TRANSIT SYSTEMS
Transform our crumbling transportation infrastructure:
- Repair American roads and bridges.
- Modernize public transit.
- Invest in reliable passenger and freight rail service.
- Create good jobs electrifying vehicles.
- Improve ports, waterways, and airports.
- Redress historic inequities and build the future of transportation infrastructure.
- Invest resources wisely to deliver infrastructure projects that produce real results.
Make our infrastructure more resilient:
- Safeguard critical infrastructure and services, and defend vulnerable communities.
- Maximize the resilience of land and water resources to protect communities and the environment.
REBUILD CLEAN DRINKING WATER INFRASTRUCTURE, A RENEWED ELECTRIC GRID, AND HIGH-SPEED BROADBAND TO ALL AMERICANS
Ensure clean, safe drinking water is a right in all communities:
- Replace 100 percent of the nation’s lead pipes and service lines.
- Upgrade and modernize America’s drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater systems, tackle new contaminants, and support clean water infrastructure across rural America.
Revitalize America’s digital infrastructure:
- Build high-speed broadband infrastructure to reach 100 percent coverage.
- Promote transparency and competition.
- Reduce the cost of broadband internet service and promote more widespread adoption.
Reenergize America’s power infrastructure:
- Build a more resilient electric transmission system.
- Spur jobs modernizing power generation and delivering clean electricity.
- Put the energy industry to work plugging orphan oil and gas wells and cleaning up abandoned mines.
- Remediate and redevelop idle real property, and spur the buildout of critical physical, social, and civic infrastructure in distressed and disadvantaged communities.
- Build next generation industries in distressed communities.
- Mobilize the next generation of conservation and resilience workers.
BUILD, PRESERVE, AND RETROFIT MORE THAN TWO MILLION HOMES AND COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS; MODERNIZE OUR NATION’S SCHOOLS, COMMUNITY COLLEGES, AND EARLY LEARNING FACILITIES; AND UPGRADE VETERANS’ HOSPITALS AND FEDERAL BUILDINGS
Build, preserve, and retrofit more than two million homes and commercial buildings to address the affordable housing crisis:
- Produce, preserve, and retrofit more than a million affordable, resilient, accessible, energy efficient, and electrified housing units.
- Build and rehabilitate more than 500,000 homes for low- and middle-income homebuyers.
- Eliminate exclusionary zoning and harmful land use policies.
- Address longstanding public housing capital needs.
- Put union building trade workers to work upgrading homes and businesses to save families money.
Modernize our nation’s schools and early learning facilities:
- Modernize our public schools.
- Investing in community college infrastructure.
- Upgrade child care facilities and build new supply in high need areas.
Upgrade VA hospitals and federal buildings:
SOLIDIFY THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF OUR CARE ECONOMY BY CREATING JOBS AND RAISING WAGES AND BENEFITS FOR ESSENTIAL HOME CARE WORKERS
- Expand access to long-term care services under Medicaid.
- Put in place an infrastructure to create good middle-class jobs with a free and fair choice to join a union.
INVEST IN R&D, REVITALIZE MANUFACTURING AND SMALL BUSINESSES, AND TRAIN AMERICANS FOR THE JOBS OF THE FUTURE
Invest in R&D and the technologies of the future:
- Advance U.S. leadership in critical technologies and upgrade America’s research infrastructure.
- Establish the United States as a leader in climate science, innovation, and R&D.
- Eliminate racial and gender inequities in research and development and science, technology, engineering, and math.
Retool and revitalize American manufacturers and small businesses:
- Strengthen manufacturing supply chains for critical goods.
- Protect Americans from future pandemics.
- Jumpstart clean energy manufacturing through federal procurement.
- Make it in ALL of America.
- Increase access to capital for domestic manufacturers.
- Create a national network of small business incubators and innovation hubs.
- Partner with rural and Tribal communities to create jobs and economic growth in rural America.
Invest in Workforce Development:
- Pair job creation efforts with next generation training programs.
- Target workforce development opportunities in underserved communities
- Build the capacity of the existing workforce development and worker protection systems.
CREATE GOOD-QUALITY JOBS THAT PAY PREVAILING WAGES IN SAFE AND HEALTHY WORKPLACES WHILE ENSURING WORKERS HAVE A FREE AND FAIR CHOICE TO ORGANIZE, JOIN A UNION, AND BARGAIN COLLECTIVELY WITH THEIR EMPLOYERS
- Empower Workers.
- Create good jobs.
- Protect workers.
THE MADE IN AMERICA TAX PLAN
Alongside the American Jobs Plan, the President is proposing to fix the corporate tax code so that it incentivizes job creation and investment here in the United States, stops unfair and wasteful profit shifting to tax havens, and ensures that large corporations are paying their fair share.
The 2017 tax law only made an unfair system worse. A recent independent study found that 91 Fortune 500 companies paid $0 in federal corporate taxes on U.S. income in 2018. In fact, according to recent analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation, the 2017 tax bill cut the average rate that corporations paid in half from 16 percent to less than 8 percent in 2018. A number of the provisions in the 2017 law also created new incentives to shift profits and jobs overseas. President Biden’s reform will reverse this damage and fundamentally reform the way the tax code treats the largest corporations.
President Biden’s reform will also make the United States a leader again in the world and help bring an end to the race-to-the-bottom on corporate tax rates that allows countries to gain a competitive advantage by becoming tax havens. This is a generational opportunity to fundamentally shift how countries around the world tax corporations so that big corporations can’t escape or eliminate the taxes they owe by offshoring jobs and profits from the United States.
Together these corporate tax changes will raise over $2 trillion over the next 15 years and more than pay for the mostly one-time investments in the American Jobs Plan and then reduce deficits on a permanent basis:
- Set the Corporate Tax Rate at 28 percent.
- Discourage Offshoring by Strengthening the Global Minimum Tax for U.S. Multinational Corporations.
- End the Race to the Bottom Around the World.
- Prevent U.S. Corporations from inverting or claiming tax havens as their residence.
- Deny Companies Expense Deductions for Offshoring Jobs and Credit Expenses for Onshoring.
- Eliminate a Loophole for Intellectual Property that Encourages Offshoring Jobs and Invest in Effective R&D Incentives.
- Enact A Minimum Tax on Large Corporations’ Book Income.
- Eliminate Tax Preferences for Fossil Fuels and Make Sure Polluting Industries Pay for Environmental Clean Up.
- Ramping Up Enforcement Against Corporations.
These are key steps toward a fairer tax code that encourages investment in the United States, stops shifting of jobs and profits abroad, and makes sure that corporations pay their fair share. The President looks forward to working with Congress, and will be putting forward additional ideas in the coming weeks for reforming our tax code so that it rewards work and not wealth, and makes sure the highest income individuals pay their fair share.
Remember, this is just the summary of the plans. Each header has more at the link. Also remember this is aspirational — the final version will have to survive the Congressional sausage grinder ahead — but it sends a clear message.
President Biden is not planning to apologize for trying to use government to solve the huge problems facing America. He’s not going to rely on magic tax cuts or the ‘power of the free market’ to automatically make this happen. He’s not going to make pre-emptive concessions in the forlorn hope of bipartisan cooperation.
(Somebody please give Senator Joe Manchin a talking-to about this, okay? And tell Mitch McConnell his days as the Grim Reaper are over.)
If there is anything to be concerned about with this agenda, it’s that it may only be a down payment on what we are going to need going forward. We’re not going to turn around with one plan a situation that has been decades coming to this point — with a lot of people fully invested in keeping things just the way they are.
This is a gauntlet thrown down over what is to be the role of government going forward, and what kind of country we are going to have. You can’t do vast things in a half-vast way. If you aim for the stars, at least you won’t shoot yourself in the foot.
Let’s do this. Make it so.
UPDATE: This is potentially huge. The Senate Parliamentarian has ruled the Senate can use budget reconciliation to pass this by simple majority vote. They only need 50 votes plus the Vice President.