"BIDEN'S INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN PAVES THE ROAD TO RUIN" - Tony Perkins, FRC.org, April 1, 2021; https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WA21D01&f=WU21D01
A few weeks ago, Joe Biden sat down with historians to see how he could change America in a way no other president had. Wednesday, we found out his plan: he's going to bankrupt us. The FDR wannabe didn't even wait until the ink on his $1.9 trillion dollar blue-state bailout (a.k.a. "COVID relief") was dry before trucking off to Pittsburgh and announcing he wants to spend $2.25 trillion more. Conveniently disguised as an "infrastructure bill," the White House has found a way to tuck the Green New Deal into an innocent-sounding public works package. His puppets in the media might sell it that way, but the Republican Party is calling it what it is: highway robbery.
"We know that 80 percent or more of people in this country -- Democrats and Republicans support investing in infrastructure," White House press secretary Jen Psaki insisted. Well, that would be great, conservatives said, if it actually invested in infrastructure. But this proposal isn't about fixing a few potholes. If it were, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pointed out, Republicans might be on board. "There would be bipartisan support for a serious, targeted infrastructure plan," he tweeted. But that's not what this is. "Unfortunately, less than six percent of this massive White House proposal would go to roads and bridges. It would spend more on electric cars than on roads, bridges, ports, airports, and waterways combined." It's a trojan horse, he argued, "for massive tax hikes and job-killing Left-wing policies."
Policies, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) pointed out on "Washington Watch" Wednesday, that have more to do with racial justice, climate change, elder care, "affordable housing," violence prevention, and forced union membership than any meaningful repairs or construction. "Let's be very clear here," Perry said. "Even the prime sponsors of the Green New Deal in the Senate said this is not an infrastructure package. It's the Green New Deal. [We're talking about] billions of dollars being spent on things like electric vehicle charging stations. Just think about that." How many of you would think it's appropriate for your taxes to pay for gas station construction? "The private sector built them, because they could fund those with private equity and make money on their investment. But yet now, we're going to compete with the private sector and try and force you to pay for it -- and then force you to drive an electric vehicle when we have the grid collapsing in places like California and Texas." It's concerning, he said.
Then, to top it all off, Biden plans to slam the brakes on American growth and force more companies to send jobs overseas. "Under Biden's plan," former President Trump argued in a statement, "if you create jobs in America, and hire American workers, you will pay MORE in taxes -- but if you close down your factories in Ohio and Michigan, and move all your production to Beijing and Shanghai, you will pay LESS. It is the exact OPPOSITE of putting America First -- it is putting America LAST!" This legislation, he warns, if it passes, "would be among the largest self-inflicted economic wounds in history... The result will be more Americans out of work, more families shattered, more factories abandoned, more industries wrecked, and more Main Streets boarded up and closed."
Biden's predecessor certainly has a stake in the matter, having slashed the taxes that this White House plans to raise to pay for everything. The administration is talking about hiking the corporate tax rate from Trump's 21 percent (which was a double-digit drop) to 28 percent. In other words, we're going to destroy the one thing that's really fueled our job creation and economic growth these last few years. And somehow Biden believes that will make us more competitive with China? No one is quite sure how since American businesses will be paying more than China's 25 percent corporate tax rate.
The whole plan is another example of the striking contrast between our two parties. Democrats believe government is the job creator -- that if we just give more money to the government, it's going to create jobs. But those jobs don't have a multiplying effect on the economy. Only the private sector jobs do that, because they aren't taking any money out of the economy involuntarily. They take profits, reinvest them in expansion and growth, and that has the multiplying effect. It's basic economics
And while Joe Biden likes to play the "I'm-only-going-to-tax-the-rich" card, the reality is that even Left-leaning economists agree that low-income and middle class families will suffer with fewer jobs, lower pay, and smaller returns on their investments. As for the corporations, conservatives aren't as sympathetic. Will that higher tax rate hurt the economy? Yes, and it's going to hurt everyday Americans. But corporate America is getting what they asked for: liberal policies. Most of these woke CEOs are in the hip pocket of the Left, fighting their cultural battles -- helping to give rise to these Leftists. And that's where these crushing, anti-free market policies come from.
Just look at what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted about Biden's plan: "This is not nearly enough." It's $2.25 trillion dollars and a major increase in taxes -- and still it's not enough. It'll never be enough for the socialists who think government should control everything and take care of everything. But those people don't live in the real world. It's the private sector that creates good, lasting jobs. It's what makes America competitive. All this will do is pour cold water on the economic recovery we're experiencing. And in the end, it'll be what most radical policies are: a dead-end -- because the government is never capable of doing what the free market can.
. [italics and colored emphasis mine]
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