Abandon Bipartisanship or Suffer the Consequences.
This naive dedication to bipartisanship has only worked to water down legislation that was already horribly inadequate.
The fight or lack thereof on behalf of Democratic leadership to pass an adequate infrastructure bill might seem like the usual partisan gridlock that prevents Presidents from implementing their agendas once elected. However, what it really exposes is the bipartisan consensus on deficit-mongering that results in corporate-friendly agenda’s being implemented regardless of which party is in power.
A few weeks after the passing of the American Rescue Plan, the Biden Administration unveiled their proposal for an infrastructure bill called The American Jobs Plan with a price tag of $2.3 trillion. Every Republican rejected the proposal on the grounds that it was irresponsible spending that would increase the deficit, however, estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show that infrastructure spending creates more economic stimulus than other forms of spending. Some advocates even say that investing in infrastructure can pay for itself over time. That seems like an extremely responsible investment.
According to a conservative study from 2019 done by Business Roundtable that called for just $979 billion in infrastructure spending over 10 years, “Every additional $1 invested creates $3.82 in economic growth over 20 years.”. The study also explains that the investment would “boost job growth” by creating 1.2 million new jobs by 2030, all while increasing GDP by more than $8 trillion over 20 years. Those are the benefits of spending just 1/4th of whats necessary. Investing the entire $4.6 trillion that’s required would create more than four million jobs by 2030 and increase GDP by more than $32 trillion over 20 years.
Those who are sounding the alarm about increasing the deficit over making responsible investments in our nation’s infrastructure that will actually pay for itself over time didn’t have much to say when Donald Trump passed a $4 trillion corporate bailout as part of the CARES Act.
Regardless, since President Biden refuses to advocate for Democratic leadership to push infrastructure through budget reconciliation or make substantial changes to the filibuster, this infrastructure bill is not going to pass. Unfortunately, even if Democrats were able to pass Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill with a simple majority that would still fall short of achieving a B grade infrastructure rating in the United States. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the American Society of Civil Engineers gave infrastructure in the U.S. a C- rating in its most recent report. The CBPP explains that “The engineers estimated the cost of bringing America’s infrastructure to a state of good repair (a grade of B) by 2025 at $4.6 trillion, of which only about 55 percent has been committed.”
After Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill was unveiled Ralph Nader responded by calling it “trivial”, explaining that “It comes down to less than $300 billion a year” over the course of eight years. Nader also criticized the Biden administration for refusing to increase the corporate tax rate to 35%, the same rate that it was set at under the Obama Administration. The bill also doesn’t include increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour or a public option for healthcare, both of which were core promises President Biden made to voters on the campaign trail.
If President Biden and Democratic leadership actually wanted to pass an adequate infrastructure bill they’d push it through budget reconciliation or abolish the filibuster so Democrats could pass it with a simple majority. Unfortunately, President Biden’s actions in regards to this situation indicate that he couldn’t care less about following through on promises made on the campaign trail or passing an adequate infrastructure bill.
An article in Politico from March described Biden’s support for a public option as not saying “never mind” while also not saying “let’s do this” either. This description can be applied to most of Biden’s agenda.
Anyone pretending that individuals like Krystin Sinema, Joe Manchin, and the unelected parliamentarian are what’s standing in the way of passing this infrastructure bill is either lying to you or being willfully ignorant. As President, Biden has the authority to demand a meeting with Sinema and Manchin and ask what the administration can do to get them on board with his agenda. He could also use the influence of the Presidency to force them into passing his agenda by supporting primary challenges against anyone blocking it.
Those who say President Biden doesn’t have leverage over conservative Democrats like Sinema of Arizona and Manchin of West Virginia simply misunderstand the moment we are in. According to recent polling, 68% of West Virginians and 79% of Arizonans support Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure package that Sinema and Manchin are currently blocking.
The fact that Sinema and Manchin have maintained their reluctance to work with the administration indicates that the administration hasn’t done much work behind the scenes to pull the levers that are available to them to change the Senator’s minds. This isn’t because that work is impossible to accomplish, it’s ultimately because President Biden is a pretty conservative Democrat controlled by corporate interests who doesn’t support implementing many of the policies that he ran on to get elected.
Instead of beginning his Presidency advocating for transformational policies like getting rid of the filibuster which would’ve allowed Democrats to implement their agenda with a simple majority, Biden began by fighting Democrats who were pointing out that it was the only way the administration would accomplish anything beyond passing a temporary Covid-19 relief bill. Rather than work to pass legislation that the public desperately needs with a simple majority, President Biden and Democratic leadership have naively attempted to negotiate with Republicans to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill.
This naive dedication to bipartisanship has only worked to water down legislation that was already horribly inadequate. President Biden’s initial infrastructure proposal was just $2.3 trillion, half of what is required, and Republicans and even some Democrats still waived their arms in alarm at the cost.
There was no conversation about how President Biden’s infrastructure plan was just half of what was necessary to moderately improve our infrastructure. There was conversation, however, about how this proposal could be scaled back even further in order to win over the Republican support required to pass legislation through regular order.
This has resulted in a group of 10 bipartisan Senators coming to an agreement on a $1.2 trillion plan that fails to raise taxes that were cut under Trump. The bill only focuses on “core infrastructure, such as roads bridges, and broadband.” while ignoring Democratic climate priorities and failing to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour or create a healthcare public option.
When it comes to the most recent bipartisan agreement the White House has said “The president appreciates the senators’ work” but that questions still needed to be addressed “around both policy and pay-fors”. Business Insider has also reported that some Democrats such as Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon have criticized the bipartisan talks by threatening “to withhold support from a bipartisan deal if it doesn’t sufficiently address the climate crisis.”.
Anyone who wants to see the administration pass an infrastructure bill that’s anywhere near adequate should call on elected progressives to band together and block any bill that fails to spend at least $4 trillion by 2025. Thankfully, The Washington Post recently reported that some Senate Democrats are negotiating a $6 trillion reconciliation package on infrastructure, healthcare and climate.
The bipartisan group stresses that “This investment would be fully paid for and not included tax increases.” but these people are never concerned about “pay-fors” when it comes to how the federal government pays for massive military budgets and corporate bailouts. It should be obvious that they don’t actually care about being fiscally responsible. These people have no concerns when it comes to deficit spending to finance corporate bailouts and foreign wars, they only have a problem when it comes to financing programs to improve the quality of life for poor and working-class Americans.
This hypocrisy is clear, but it also ignores the fact that the deficit spending to finance corporate bailouts and foreign wars are extremely irresponsible and provide little return on investment, while deficit spending to finance programs to benefit poor and working-class Americans routinely provide larger returns on investments. According to Investopedia, “Evidence shows that infrastructure can create significant economic stimulus even compared to other forms of spending.”
This should be obvious to most people. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that giving money to those who are already super-rich doesn’t lead to them spending that money back into the economy, it leads to them saving more of it in offshore bank accounts to avoid paying taxes.
A recent report by ProPublica revealed that the true tax rate of the richest people in the United States was consistently under 5%. According to the report, “billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing”. In fact, Warren Buffett had a true tax rate under 1%.
Numerous reports have also revealed that corporations routinely evade paying taxes. According to an article in Forbes, “at least 55 prominent U.S. companies paid $0 in federal corporate income taxes in 2020”. That doesn’t do anything to stimulate the economy. On the other hand, spending on programs that put more money in the pockets of poor and working-class Americans leads to people spending more, which then stimulates the economy.
This is almost always how these situations unravel. Democrats run on a message of implementing transformational policies that will improve quality of life, however, immediately upon getting elected they pivot to the right by fear-mongering over the deficit and prioritizing bipartisanship which ultimately results in progressive policies being watered down to the point that by the time they pass with bipartisan support, they’re not much different from Republican policy. This is exactly how President Obama came to pass the Affordable Care Act, which was originally a policy advocated by Mitt Romney as Governor of Massachusetts after it was thought up by the Heritage Foundation, a prominent right-wing think tank.
A similar situation is occurring as this is written. The American Society of Civil Engineers insists that $4.6 trillion needs to be spent on infrastructure in the United States by 2025 just to bring it into a state of “good repair”. However, the Democratic position on infrastructure funding started at just $2.3 trillion with some modest tax increases and has quickly been watered down to $1.2 trillion with no tax increases after bipartisan negotiations.
If President Biden and Democratic leadership are not convinced to abandon passing an infrastructure bill through regular order and get rid of the filibuster or use budget reconciliation to pass an infrastructure bill using a simple Democratic majority, there is no hope in an adequate infrastructure bill being passed. In fact, even if Democrats are able to pass an infrastructure bill using a simple majority they’d still only be spending half of what’s required to adequately improve our nation’s infrastructure.
This failure to deliver anything but neoliberal half-measures caused Democrats to suffer devastitating losses in Congress under Obama. Democrats currently hold majorities in both the House and Senate if you include the tie breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, unfortunately, Democrats seem to be repeating the mistakes they’ve made in the past by refusing to spend as much as the moment demands. If this continues, expect more devastating losses for Democrats under Biden.
Matt Dougherty is an independent journalist and managing editor at The Bull-Moose Note. You can subscribe here to get our articles delivered directly to your inbox. If you’d like to support our work, which is always made available for free, you can give a one-time donation through Venmo or become a monthly supporter for $3, $6, or $12 per month through Patreon.