Politics

Report: Biden Wants to be Next FDR and LBJ with Massive Tax and Spend Infrastructure Proposal: $4 Trillion in Spending, $3.5 Trillion in Tax Increases

Published

5 years ago

March 29, 2021

The Washington Post reported Monday morning that Joe Biden is looking to be the next Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson by proposing massive infrastructure spending and tax increases to transform the nation like FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society. The Biden proposal comes in at a reported $4 trillion in spending supported by $3.5 trillion in new taxes.

A report by the Bostin Globe says Democrats are looking at the infrastructure bill as a vehicle for implementing the Green New Deal.

Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein, “NEW: The initial draft infrastructure proposal circulated at the White House called for $3T in spending & $1T in tax hikes, per 3 sources familiar. But this week, White House expected to push ~$4T in spending & as much as $3.5T in tax hikes”

WaPo excerpt:

…the two-pronged package Biden will begin unveiling this week includes higher amounts of federal spending but also significantly more in new tax revenue — with possibly as much as $4 trillion in new spending and more than $3 trillion in tax increases, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private dynamics.

…Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda is ambitious in scope, aiming to confront global climate change, rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, revive domestic manufacturing, and transform U.S. child care, among other goals. Beyond blunting the deficit impact, raising taxes also would advance liberals’ goal of cutting inequality.

…Despite their narrow margins, administration officials have begun comparing their coming efforts to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal or Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs. They see their proposals as more impactful than those put forward by any modern Democratic president, including Barack Obama.

“If you look at what makes the Democratic Party what it is, and what’s considered our greatest hits — our ‘Abbey Roads,’ if you will — it’s not doing something small with Dwight D. Eisenhower or when Bill Clinton triangulated. It’s about creating programs that create a floor of justice and decency in this country,” said Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.), who met with officials at the White House last week to discuss the infrastructure plan. “We have that opportunity again now.”

…On Wednesday, Biden will unveil the first part of his agenda focused on jobs and improving America’s economic competitiveness.

The plan will center on proposals to repair the nation’s physical infrastructure, such as its bridges, railways, ports, water systems and more, as well as revive domestic manufacturing; invest in research and development; expand clean energy investments, and create a nationwide infrastructure for electric vehicles. This part of the plan also will include major investments in child care and educational facilities, and major investments in caretakers for the elderly and disabled amid the nation’s major aging crisis.

The second part of the plan, which will be unveiled next month, is expected to include initiatives to expand child care; provide paid family and medical leave; approve an expansion of health care and the Affordable Care Act, and extend a larger child benefit recently approved by Congress, among other measures. White House officials have said no decisions have been made about which of the proposals they would aim to move through Congress first.

…Democrats may use the parliamentary procedure known as reconciliation to approve an infrastructure package with a narrow majority that would not require Republican votes, the same way they approved the coronavirus relief bill.

End excerpt. Please read the entire Washington Post article at this link.

Democrat Senator Ed Markey (MA) proclaimed on Monday, “The age of incrementalism is over and the decade of the Green New Deal is just getting started.”

Boston Globe excerpt via MSN:

…The Biden administration has indicated that it plans to use its infrastructure proposal, a package to be unveiled on Wednesday that reportedly could cost as much as $4 trillion, to supercharge the nation’s clean energy transition. The move could set the stage for a drop in emissions and represents a broader change in how Democrats tackle the issue of climate.

“It’s a way of accomplishing many of the goals of the Green New Deal,” Markey told the Globe, saying he will urge his colleagues “to go big and bold to match the urgency of the moment.”

The package is not expected to be a word-for-word embrace of the sweeping climate resolution Markey co-authored with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but it inexorably links climate with the nation’s infrastructure and economy. That is a significant departure from the standalone cap-and-trade bill he coauthored in 2009, the last time Democrats held the White House and both chambers of Congress, which couldn’t even get a vote in the Senate.

But in some ways, that’s precisely the point.

“The lesson I learned was that climate needs to inform and be included in every legislative package, not separate and put into a silo,” Markey said.

The Huffington Post reports Markey and Congressional Democrats are set to push for a $10 trillion ‘green infrastructure plan’. (Excerpt.)

…On Monday, Biden will face some new pressure on the package, but from the left. Much of the Congressional Progressive Caucus is set to unveil the THRIVE Act, which would provide $10 trillion in federal infrastructure spending over the next decade, including massive investments in renewable energy, zero-emissions buildings and economic development in some of the worst-polluted parts of the country.

“The THRIVE Act is the agenda that establishes the pillars for economic renewal in our country,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a lead sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, told HuffPost by phone. “This bill lays out a plan for massive job creation within the United States, so that a younger generation of Americans can think of these jobs as careers.”