The White House has unveiled a two trillion dollar infrastructure reform blueprint
This is less than previously anticipated – anticipating procedural difficulties in getting it passed in Congress, Biden’s team had to “squeeze” the cost of his bill almost in half.
In fact, the name of this reform is misleading. Only one-fourth of the allocated funds are to be spent on renovating America’s specific infrastructure – federal highways, airports, railways and cable networks.
The rest will be spent on related areas, such as the healthcare system and green energy. For example, more than $200 billion will be spent on new subsidy programmes for the purchase of electric cars and the installation of wind turbines with solar panels.
The semiconductor sector will not be spared. Fifty billion dollars will go towards setting up new plants in the U.S., which companies like Intel are already doing. America is trying to reduce its dependence on Taiwan, which may become the scene of an imminent “hot” conflict.
To finance his reform, Biden promises to sharply raise taxes on the affluent middle class and businesses. The latter is expecting an increase in the fiscal burden from the current 21%, to which Trump has lowered the tax rate, to 28%. This has already provoked a negative reaction in Congress.
Republicans and many moderate Democrats are not willing to raise taxes in a crisis when America’s small businesses are already rapidly going bankrupt. At the same time, liberal lawmakers accuse Biden of wanting to half-heartedly shut down the green agenda.
A more realistic scenario would be to pass the bill piecemeal. The reform could end up being even less sweeping than it currently appears. And that will bring new hysteria from the left wing of the Democratic Party, which will once again be left at the broken trough.
Malek Dudakov