Two area Congressmen have different takes on a massive national infrastructure plan for the Biden Administration.
The Biden Infrastructure Plan looks introduced at least a billion dollars into the nation’s infrastructure and moving the country towards greener energy. Named the American Jobs Plan, the spending plan is part of a two-piece package towards modernizing the country’s roads and energy grids as well as aid in the country’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
18th District Congressman Darin LaHood says it’s a slow process but he’s hopeful something will be completed soon: “Right now, we are looking at about a trillion dollars in the deal, which is a lot of money. I think people are concerned about raising taxes. The way [the Biden Administration] has put it together now, the funding mechanisms for infrastructure would come from a number of different sources, but it would be left over COVID money that would be returned and used for infrastructure. There would be a user fee of some sort that would be put on electric vehicles. There would be public-private partnerships. Again, I remain optimistic that we can get something done.”
13th District Congressman Rodney Davis isn’t quite as hopeful. Davis met with the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee members from the GOP last week and says that the compromise might all just be for political gamesmanship: “We saw what I think will amount to 19 hours worth of political theater. I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere. I think the Democrats are dead set on using a process called reconciliation. That reconciliation process will likely lead to a $4 trillion investment that is going to include raising taxes and costs on every single American, and also putting in Green New Deal policies that will care more about the carbon footprint of a piece of gravel that goes in the asphalt or concrete versus how do we make our tax dollars go further in an infrastructure package itself.”
Analysts say that the compromise is likely to fall somewhere in between. The Biden plan is expected to raise corporate income taxes to 21% as well as a global minimum tax rate up to 21%. Book income tax would raise to 15% and there would also be a hard limit on corporate inversions so that corporations cannot merge with global companies to avoid paying taxes. A proposed gas tax is expected to be dumped this week so the deal could be done by week’s end.