Biden Unveils $ 2 Trillion Infrastructure Plan to Create Millions of US Jobs

Image taken by a drone of a road junction in Rosedale (Maryland), this Wednesday.JIM LO SCALZO / EFE

President Joe Biden's first blow was a crash plan to overcome the pandemic, a $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package already approved by Congress.

The second is a program for the reconstruction and modernization of infrastructures, which will be presented this Wednesday in Pittsburgh, with eight-year investments worth two trillion dollars that will generate millions of jobs.

The objective is to remedy deficits in essential services such as roads, bridges, airports or the electricity grid, many of which date from the 1950s, and modernize the country to better face climate change.

But the ultimate ambition is to shore up US supremacy against competition from rivals like China.

The so-called American Employment Plan has a long and winding road ahead, politically and legislatively speaking.

The viability of the financing, which the White House hopes to achieve thanks to an increase in corporate tax from the current 21% to 28%, and the opposition of the Republicans to the intervention of the State augurs an inclement process.

Some Democrats also criticize the plan, as insufficient, while large businessmen believe that it will hinder the post-pandemic recovery due to fiscal overstrain.

But Biden is not afraid: "Democrats and Republicans can agree on this issue," he said, even aware that reaching consensus will not be easy.

The initiative plans to allocate 620,000 million dollars to the transport sector to modernize more than 32,000 kilometers of roads and highways and repair some 10,000 bridges throughout the country.

According to the civil engineers association, 43% of the roads are in poor condition, while 42% of the 617,000 bridges are at least 50 years old.

7.5% of them are structurally deficient.

The richest country in the world drops to 13th place when the quality of its infrastructures is assessed, as a consequence of the 40% drop in public investment since the 1960s.

"The American Employment Plan will invest in the country in a way not seen since we built the interstate highways and won the space race," emphasizes the White House.

In addition to the road network, it contemplates modernizing the electricity network, the water supply or affordable access to internet broadband;

also rebuild two million houses and buildings, schools and nurseries;

boost the

economy of care

, with the creation of better paying jobs that level inequalities of class and race;

revitalize the manufacturing industry, ensure the supply of essential components and invest more in R&D.

A prominent chapter of the initiative is the so-called "electric car revolution", which provides, among other things, to replace 20% of school transport buses with electric vehicles, which has also caused an avalanche of criticism among the greats of the engine.

Biden's clear support for the union membership of workers also appears black on white in this roadmap, precisely on the eve of the result of the pioneering vote among 6,000 workers at an Amazon center.

This Wednesday's ambitious speech will be the starting point of a battle in Congress that is predicted to be as harsh as it is uncertain, and which will test his negotiating skills.

The interventionism of the State in the economy, that supposed public spending in spades denounced by its detractors, and the increase in corporation tax from 21% adopted by the great 2017 tax reform of Donald Trump, have been on the warpath for weeks. to Republicans and the business class.

The White House assures that, even after the hypothetical increase, the rate would remain at its lowest level since World War II, except for Trump's hiatus.

As excessive as they may seem, Biden's proposals are far from constituting probe balloons or displays of illusory thinking.

In his first press conference, last Thursday, the president repeated three times in a response his desire to "change the paradigm" and to carry out his agenda with or without Republican support.

The test of their determination will be this infrastructure plan, much more radical and transformative than the approved American Rescue Plan.

Converting the US economy into a more equitable, sustainable and competitive functional system, especially with respect to China and facing the challenges of climate change - which shows the country's shame with each new hurricane or cold wave, such as the recent one in Texas-, is the most palpable example of another of the slogans of his mandate: ambition.

If ambition guided its response to the coronavirus crisis, with a billion-dollar plan - its endowment is equivalent to almost 40% of the federal government's budget, around 9% of the national GDP - which deserved the qualification of historical, the epithets remain shorts to frame the new project, which aims to overcome deep-seated structural inequalities, in addition to creating 10 million green jobs and revitalizing the industry.

Unlike the pandemic rescue, a large injection of public spending, the future reconstruction will imply - if it is approved in Congress - a fiscal revolution by which what they have most will contribute more.

Another paradigm shift, as the most progressive wing of the Democrats has been demanding (in the New York Assembly, for example, they have presented a bill to tax the state's billionaires).

• New York State Legalizes Recreational Marijuana

In Biden's mind are the so-called

blue collar

workers, the

blue collar

workers - those most affected by the gradual economic decline, by divestment and, finally, by the pandemic;

mostly black and Latino but also low-skilled white, "those who work hard and pay taxes and serve their country", as he defined them at the beginning of his speech - but also global challenges.

China will oust the United States as the world's largest economy in 2028, five years earlier than previously planned, according to the Center for Business and Economic Research (CEBR), thanks to its skillful handling of the pandemic.

China was the only major world economy to avoid recession in 2020, overtaking the US as the top destination for foreign direct investment that year.

The strategic dependence of the US on China was evident during the pandemic, or in the interruption of the assembly line in automobile plants due to the shortage of essential components, also Chinese.

The infrastructure and employment macro plan aims to respond to all these shortcomings and weaknesses.

Whoever sees a politician lacking in strong ideas in Biden must change his mind, suggests the White House.

"The president thinks his role is to offer a bold perspective on how we can invest in our country, our communities, our workers," said his spokesperson, Jen Psaki, on Tuesday;

"He wants to clearly show that he has a plan and that he is open to discussion."

"But he will not assume commitments due to the urgency of acting," qualified a senior White House official.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who will be on the front line, sees the deal as possible.

"We have an extraordinary opportunity to enlist the support of both parties to think big and show boldness."

Subscribe here to the

EL PAÍS América

newsletter

and receive all the informative keys of the current situation in the region.