U.S. President Joe Biden introduced his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, with key measures including $100 billion for broadband, €111 billion for water infrastructure and $621 billion for transportation projects.
Mr. Biden’s pledge to tackle climate change is embedded throughout the plan. Roads, bridges and airports would be made more resilient to the effects of more extreme storms, floods and fires wrought by a warming planet. Spending on research and development could help spur breakthroughs in cutting-edge clean technology, while plans to retrofit and weatherize millions of buildings would make them more energy efficient.
This huge infrastructure commitment comes only 3 weeks after the President convinced Congress to spend $1.9 trillion on a Covid stimulus package.
“It’s a once-in-a-generation investment in America,” Biden said in a speech in Pittsburgh about his “American Jobs Plan.” The President assured that ‘I’m convinced that if we act now, in 50 years people are going to look back and say this is the moment when America won the future.’
“It’s big, yes. It’s bold, yes, and we can get it done,” he added.
The White House said proposed tax changes will “raise over $2 trillion over the next 15 years and more than pay for the mostly one-time investments in the American Jobs Plan and then reduce deficits on a permanent basis.” The changes include raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, hiking the global minimum tax on U.S. multinational companies, establishing what’s called a 15% minimum tax on book income, eliminating tax preferences for fossil fuels and ramping up enforcement against corporations.
“These are my ideas on how to pay for this plan,” Biden said during his speech, as he touched on the tax hikes. “If others have additional ideas, let them come forward. I’m open to other ideas, so long as they do not impose any tax increase on people making less than $400,000.”
Biden also promised to “bring Republicans into the Oval Office” and “listen to them.”