Over the weekend, the Republicans that dared to go on the mainstream weekend television news shows (Meet the Press, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and CNN's State of the Union) unsurprisingly and on cue all bellyached about the Biden/Harris American Jobs Plan. Among their protests were:
- Most of the bill has nothing to do with infrastructure. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, on the This Week Show, openly said he did not know what human care is. That should be surprising that a former Governor does not know that human care deals with helping the elderly and the disabled function at home. Then again, look at this current Know Nothing version of the former Party of Lincoln.
- Raising taxes on corporations (as opposed to a gas or toll tax on everyone else) will hurt the economy. Please look at the chart below and ask yourself if raising taxes on Corporations to the proposed 28 percent the Biden/Harris plan calls for would really hurt the economy. Considering the country did fairly well when corporations were taxed at substantially hollow rates makes that argument rather hollow.
- It will increase the deficit. Where was this concern when Republicans alone passed their 2017 tax cut for the rich and corporations or the two multi-trillion-dollar tax cuts when the nation was at war in 2001 and 2003. Republicans, as previous articles have said, are the prime movers of increasing the national debt. The only Presidents that have reduced it are Democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
- Infrastructure spending will pay for itself through increased economic growth. While there will probably be a greater return on infrastructure spending than tax cuts (one study says there would be a $1.50 return for every $1.00 spent on infrastructure,) this talking point has not stood the test of time. Otherwise, the Reagan, Bush II, and Trump tax cuts would have led to sustained economic booms. None of them did. The best recent economic growth and job production periods occurred again in the Democratic Presidencies of Clinton and Obama. It should be noted that Trump liked to take credit for the good times he inherited from the Obama/Biden Administration.
Washington Post and President Biden push back.
The Washington Post, unshackled from having to pay virtually all their attention to Donald Trump, was quick to pounce on the Republican weekend talk points.
The Post gave the claim that only up to seven percent of the American Jobs Plan went toward infrastructure three Pinocchios.
Returning from Camp David after the Easter Weekend, President Biden countered Republican false talking points that most of the American Jobs Plan did not contain many provisions by stating to reporters:
“When you’re in a situation where you can’t turn on a water fountain in school because the water affects your health, that’s infrastructure. I’m talking about making sure we take asbestos out of schools, that’s infrastructure. I’m talking about building high-speed rail, that’s infrastructure. I’m talking about making sure we are in a situation where we can redo federal buildings that are absolutely leaking energy every single day. That’s infrastructure, in addition to roads and bridges and broadband.”
The President also said that enacting this legislation would increase our competitiveness with the other countries in the world (like China) that are also upgrading and modernizing their infrastructure.
Moving Forward
Republicans have proven again, with their most nonsensical arguments and four-decade-old Reganominc talking points, that they have no ideas to bring to the debate on infrastructure and they do not know how to govern.
How can they not be for legislation that would provide:
- Clean drinking water.
- Environmental clean-ups.
- Modern and renovated school buildings.
- More human care.
- Energy-efficient buildings.
- More electric cars.
Biden is right to point out that these are investments in infrastructure (and human capital) and the future well-being of the country and the American People.
In his weekly column for the Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria pointed out that, unlike Republican tax cuts, the Biden/Harris American Jobs Plan would be "the first major fiscal program in five decades that would focus once again on investment."
He also wrote that while Donald Trump's had the stated goal of making America Great Again (or his image of harkening back to a Leave it to Beaver society, whites are in the majority and the United States was the leading superpower,) The Biden/Harris American Jobs Plan would actually "attempting to actually do it."
While much needs to be done to finalize the provisions of the American Jobs Plan and the soon to be revealed American Families Plan (including how to pay for it,) there is no denying that investments in the nation's infrastructure and people will make the country better and great again.
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