Size Matters: Why Biden’s Infrastructure Plan Needs to be Much Bigger
Last week, President Biden introduced an outline for his next major legislative priority — infrastructure. According to the White House’s fact sheet, this package will allocate federal dollars towards projects related to transportation, energy, manufacturing, research and development, schools, housing, internet, and care infrastructure. All in all, this plan would advance holistic investments in nearly every sector of the economy while creating millions of good-paying, union jobs. The American Jobs Plan, as the president has coined it, not only will provide employment opportunities in building out this infrastructure, but it will lead to greater economic activity. The components of this plan are incredibly important, however, the scale to which the Biden Administration is proposing directing its investments is not nearly big enough.
For some context, President Biden’s “once-in-a-generation” infrastructure package will leverage approximately $2.3 trillion over the next decade. Our projected spending on the military over that same time period is $8.3 trillion. The Intergovernmental Panel on the Climate Crisis report dictates that if we want to avoid a climate apocalypse, we must reduce global carbon emissions by 50% by 2030. In order to make sufficiently scaled investments in green infrastructure, we need to be spending $1 trillion/year and at least $10 trillion over a decade. This plan misses the mark.
A $10 trillion infrastructure plan should be our north star. With an infrastructure package that size, by 2030, we would be able to:
- Replace every gas guzzling car with an electric vehicle
- Provide zero-emission public transit while doubling our bus and train capacity
- Retrofit and modernize every building and home in America
- Ensure universal clean water
- Build a 100% green, national power grid
- Provide universal broadband
- Make a once-in-a-generation investment in green R&D
- Implement Biden’s plan to invest in the care economy creating jobs with livable wages for care workers
- Upgrade our roads, bridges, farms, and public lands
We desperately need these critical investments, but a lot of members of the political establishment are concerned about the cost. They shouldn’t be. At the height of World War II, we spent about $8.5 trillion in one year alone. We didn’t tax for every dollar we spent, and we didn’t experience runaway inflation. We simply spent what was needed to win the war, and we did. And we know that investments in infrastructure will yield a return on our investment greater than their cost over the long-term.
However, for those concerned about deficits and insistent on raising taxes to pay for these programs, let’s do this. We absolutely should raise taxes particularly on those who aren’t paying their fair share. The best part of President Biden’s proposal is that he would work to establish a global minimum tax of 21% virtually eliminating tax havens. At the same time, he would raise the corporate rate to 28%. We should go further. New taxes we should consider include:
- Elizabeth Warren’s Real Corporate Profits Tax that levies a 7% tax on profits big corporations report to their investors
- A Financial Transactions Tax
- Wealth Taxes
- Higher Income Tax Rates on those earning greater than $250,000/year
- Taxes on pollution
- Repealing the Trump tax cuts completely
- Closing corporate tax loopholes
- Restoring the Estate Tax on the super rich
- Fully funding the IRS
These taxes would raise between $6–10 trillion depending on how you set the rates.
Beyond taxing the rich, we should consider reducing our bloated Pentagon budget. As I previously stated, we are projected to spend $8.3 trillion over the next decade on the military. Our massive military budgets aren’t keeping us safer. They are fueling the fire of an overly-aggressive foreign policy that has led to devastating wars in Iraq and Afghanistan all while lining the pockets of defense contractors. We could cut our military spending in half and still be spending twice that of our closest competitor China and more than thrice as much as Russia. In President Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, he warned of a rising military industrial complex and how its power would impact our budgets and foreign policy. It’s time we finally heeded his warning and reigned in our out-of-control military budget.
This is an opportunity to save the planet from an irreversible climate catastrophe. We have an obligation to demand that any infrastructure package be big enough to meet the scale of the moment. I know I am ready to hold my representatives feet to the fire, and I hope you will too.
