Details of infrastructure spending plan unveiled

President Biden officially unveiled his infrastructure package in Pittsburgh on March 31

President Joe Biden announced his infrastructure package in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, unveiling details of the $2-trillion American Jobs Plan that will focus on transportation and much more.

“The heart of the plan is modernizing transportation infrastructure – our roads, bridges and airports,” Biden said during a press event in Pittsburgh. “It grows the economy in key ways. It makes it easier and more efficient to move goods, get to work, and become more competitive around the world.”

Biden’s Build Back Better initiative was previously priced at $3 to $4 trillion, but now proposes approximately $2 trillion in spending over eight years.

The new plan will be paid for with a 28% corporate tax rate hike. The Trump administration lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%.

The White House said the tax increase, combined with measures designed to stop offshoring of profits, would fund the infrastructure plan within 15 years, CNBC reported.

According to reports, the plan proposes to devote $621 billion toward building and repairing the nation’s transportation system, including roads, bridges, public transit, ports, airports, as well as electric vehicle development.

In addition, if passed the plan will invest $580 billion in American manufacturing, research and development and job training efforts; pump more than $300 billion into improving drinking-water infrastructure, expanding broadband access

and upgrading electric grids; add more than $300 billion into building and retrofitting affordable housing, along with constructing and upgrading schools; and direct $400 billion to care for elderly and disabled Americans.

According to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, the goal is to create 5 million new jobs and restore all jobs lost during the past year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

President Biden called the new measure a transformational plan to overhaul and upgrade America’s physical infrastructure, promising it would create the “most resilient, innovative economy in the world.”

“It is not a plan that tinkers around the edges,” Biden was quoted. “It is a once-in-a-generation investment in America. Unlike anything we have seen or done, since we built the interstate highway system and the space race decades ago. In fact, the largest American jobs investment since World War II.”

Biden’s long-awaited infrastructure package is the administration’s second major legislative effort after passing the $1.9-trillion American Rescue Plan earlier this month.