DemDaily: Building Back Better. The American Jobs Plan

April 1, 2021

President Biden on Wednesday unveiled the first piece of his sweeping two-part infrastructure and jobs proposal - the largest investment in jobs since World War II.

The American Jobs Plan promises to overhaul and upgrade US roads, bridges, rail, investments in broadband, cybersecurity and domestic manufacturing, investments in research and science, and our children's schools.

The roughly $2.25 trillion plan also aims to shift to greener energy over the next eight years.

The second half of the proposal, the American Families Plan, which will be announced in the coming weeks, is targeted at "social infrastructure" like universal pre-kindergarten and healthcare reforms. Both plans, said Biden, "are essential to our economic future."

The American Jobs Plan: The Breakdown

Transportation Infrastructure
$611 billion for transportation infrastructure, including roads, bridges, public transit, rail, ports, waterways, airports and electric vehicles in service of improving air quality, reducing congestion and limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

* $174 billion for incentivizing electric vehicles and creating electric infrastructure
* $115 billion for updating highways, roads, bridges and main streets
* $85 billion for improving and expanding public transit
* $80 billion for repairing Amtrak lines and connecting new cities
* $50 billion "Infrastructure resiliency" to withstand climate-related disasters
* $25 billion for upgrade airports
* $20 billion for improving road safety, including bridges
* $20 billion to connect neighborhoods historically cut off by investments
* $17 billion for Inland waterways, coastal ports, land ports of entry, and ferries
* $25 billion miscellaneous

"Imagine what we can do, what's within our reach if we modernize those highways. You and your family could travel coast to coast without a single tank of gas, onboard a high-speed train. We can connect high-speed, affordable, reliable internet wherever you live. Imagine knowing that you are handing your children and grandchildren a country that will lead the world in producing clean energy technology." -- President Joseph Biden

Quality of Life at Home
$662 billion focused on improving the lives of Americans, including affordable housing, modernization of schools, facilities, water and electric infrastructure, as well as broadband expansion.

* $213 billion for affordable and sustainable housing. This includes $40 billion for improving public housing and $27 billion for clean energy and sustainability.

* $111 billion to modernize America's drinking water, including lead pipes and service lines, wastewater, and stormwater systems
* $100 billion for power infrastructure to update the country's electric grid. This includes $16 million to plug oil and gas wells and reclaim abandoned mines, $5 billion for redeveloping unused properties and $10 billion for a new Civilian Conservation Corps
* $100 billion for expanding high-speed broadband nationwide and to make it more affordable for Americans
* $100 billion to upgrade and build public schools. This includes  $12 billion for community college infrastructure and $25 billion for upgrading child care facilities in high-needs areas
* $18 million for Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics
* $10 billion for new workers in public lands and waters
* $10 billion to modernize federal buildings

"It's time to build our economy from the bottom up and from the middle out. Not the top down, it hadn't worked very well... the great middle class built this country. And unions built the middle class...This time, when we rebuild the middle class, we're going to bring everybody along. Regardless of your background, your color, your religion. Everybody gets to come along." -- President Joseph Biden

Research, Development and Manufacturing
$480 billion, including approximately $300 billion in manufacturing, support for domestic production of technologies and critical goods. That includes $180 billion on new research and development with an emphasis on clean energy, fewer emissions and climate change research, and $100 billion for worker training and protection systems.

* $52 billion for domestic manufacturers supporting rural manufacturing and clean energy
* $50 billion for a new office to monitor domestic industrial capacity
* $50 billion for the National Science Foundation for new technology
* $48 billion for American workforce development infrastructure and worker protection
* $46 billion to support clean energy manufacturing
* $40 billion for a dislocated workers program
* $40 billion to upgrade research infrastructure in laboratories
* $35 billion for technology addressing the climate crisis
* $31 billion for programs for research & development for small businesses
* $30 billion toward preventing future pandemics
* $20 billion to 10 regional innovation hub
* $10 billion research and development at historically-black universities and other historically underserved institutions.
* $28 billion other/miscellaneous

The American Jobs Plan is going to...extend access to quality, affordable home and community-based care. For too long, caregivers who were disproportionately women and women of color and immigrants. This plan, along with the American Families Plan, changes that, with better wages, benefits and opportunities for millions of people who will be able to get to work in an economy that works for them. -- President Joseph Biden

Care Infrastructure
$400 billion to improve access to quality, affordable home or community-based care for the elderly and people with disabilities. It would expand a Medicaid program to make more services available and eliminate a backlog that prevents thousands from getting care. It would also boost pay for care workers, who are disproportionately women of color and typically earn about $12 an hour.

How to Pay For it
* Corporate tax hike: Increases the corporate income tax rate from 21% to 28% for 15 years. President Trump convinced Congress to lower it from 35% to 21%
* Global minimum tax: Increases the minimum tax on US multinational corporations from 13% to 21%.
* Tax on book income: Levies a 15% minimum tax on the income the largest corporations report to investors, as opposed to the income reported to the Internal Revenue Service.
* Clean Energy Credits: Also proposes as much as $400 billion in clean energy credits for firms.

If passed alongside President Biden's Made in America corporate tax plan, the plan will be fully paid for within the next 15 years and reduce deficits in the years after.

Now the Biden administration just needs to get it passed in Congress.

DemList will keep you informed.

DemList
Connecting You to The Party
Connecting You to Each Other

Kimberly Scott
Publisher

Have a good holiday weekend. DemList will return April 6th!

 

Sources:  White House, NPR, CNN, Axios, The Washington Post