What’s in the Infrastructure Bill?
In late 2021 Congress passed a $1.2T “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.”
You would normally think when government talks about infrastructure, it was talking about roads, bridges, airports, tunnels and the like.
A little over a third of that money is going toward ‘infrastructure’ in this legislation. Here’s the list which totals $426B:
- $73 billion for electric grid and power infrastructure
- $66 billion for passenger and freight rail
- $65 billion for broadband investments
- $55 billion for water systems and infrastructure
- $50 billion for Western water storage
- $39 billion for public transit
- $25 billion for airports
- $21 billion for environmental remediation projects
- $17 billion for ports and waterways
- $11 billion for road safety
But even the listing above carries additional, non-infrastructure caveats. For example, the $65B to broadband extension is meant to assure Internet access to all, but it includes a subsidy of $30/month for one in four families to pay for it. The $73B electric grid money is not only to update and provide more security for our grid, its real focus is on transmission of electricity from where green energy – solar and wind – can be more efficiently generated to places where it is not. It doesn’t address how ‘green’ generated electricity will replace the capacity of that generated by fossil fuels currently.
So, what’s the rest of the money – about two-thirds of it – to be used to accomplish? You should also know the 2,702-page bill was narrowly passed in the House. These next paragraphs will help explain why.
$10B for the creation of a Climate Civilian Corps. The bill states these folks will be put to work conserving public lands and help achieve environmental justice.
$20B to ‘Advance Racial Equity and Environmental Justice’ to reconnect neighborhoods cut out of historic investments.
$175B investment to “win the electric vehicle market.” This will be in the form of manufacturing subsidies and consumer tax credits. It also includes building a network of 500,000 electric charging stations across the country. (Did the government set up gas service stations for vehicles when cars and trucks came on the scene?) The money will also be used to buy electric school buses. So, with this bill, the government is attempting to artificially create a market for electric vehicles. Only socialist governments using central planning attempt to create the markets for their citizens. Free countries support free markets where the consuming public decides what it will buy and the prices it will pay for them.
$213B to build or retrofit 2 million “sustainable” houses and buildings. It also slips in $40 billion for public housing, stating this will “disproportionately benefit women, people of color, and people with disabilities.”
$100 billion to upgrade and build new public schools. That includes “improving school kitchens, so they can be used to better prepare nutritious meals for our students and go green by reducing or eliminating the use of paper plates and other disposable materials.” You maybe thought school buildings were the responsibility of the states and local communities. Hah.
$12 Billion for Community Colleges.
$25 Billion for Government Childcare Programs “to help upgrade childcare facilities and increase the supply of childcare in areas that need it most.”
$2B to reduce supposed “racial and gender inequities” in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) research and development.
You’re right. You don’t normally think of these items as infrastructure.
But they all fit this administration’s idea of ‘generational transformation.’
The use of that term resulted in weeks of work between Senate Democrats, Republicans and the White House to identify what constitutes infrastructure. I have no idea what generational transformation means, and I don’t think any member of Congress does either.
The bottom line of the legislation is twofold. One, it’s a pile of money spent on socialist ideology which does not reflect the attitudes or goals of the vast majority of the American public. Two, we can’t afford it, period.
This Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act passed last year were two major items on the Biden agenda. In the latter, taxes on corporations are significantly increased which will add fuel to a recession and a sputtering economy.
Couple that with the two legislative items mentioned – which are the major spending factors the last two years – the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently estimated the annual deficits will total some $19T over the next 10 years. Without some intervention, our debt will top $50T, more than 2 ½ times our GDP. That’s beyond bankruptcy, folks – it’s called foreclosure.
So, while President Biden gets accolades for getting most of his agenda accomplished, the country is headed for the financial toilet and our superpower status in the world is lost as we’re about to join the third world.
Brilliant! And he says, “our work is far from over” as he and his staff and cabinet are focused on ‘generational transformation.’
Can’t wait for all these big, over spenders of OUR money to run for reelection.
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Have a great and prosperous week.
Hug somebody.
References:
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/10/1026081880/senate-passes-bipartisan-infrastructure-bill
https://www.westernjournal.com/hidden-page-508-infrastructure-bill-plan-make-expensive-drive-car/
SPIDER Bites
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