The Biden administration unveiled a roughly $2.25 trillion dollar “infrastructure” plan in Pittsburgh last week. Dubbed “The American Jobs Plan,” the initiative would run for eight years and allocate yet more money the U.S. government does not have to expand the role of government at the expense of the American taxpayer.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who dropped out of the 2020 presidential race after polling less than one percent, tweeted her delusions about what constitutes infrastructure on Wednesday. “Paid leave is infrastructure. Child care is infrastructure. Caregiving is infrastructure,” she said.
Paid leave is infrastructure.
Child care is infrastructure.
Caregiving is infrastructure.— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) April 7, 2021
Gillibrand, though, is basically just reiterating what the Biden administration has asserted through its entire economic strategy. The $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” coronavirus relief package, among other provisions, allows federal employees to rake in $1,400 a week without working. That’s a $570 million paid leave fund. All in all, the White House is under the impression that any far-left preferences can be included in plans recognized under “essential” money.
Biden Thinks Infrastructure Means More Than it Really Does
“Infrastructure” is defined by Merriam Webster to be “the system of public works of a country, state or region” or “the resources (such as personnel, buildings or equipment) required for an activity.” Nonetheless, a distorted vision of America’s future has made the Biden administration use the term to define a whole swath of verifiably unrelated reforms that will lay before Congress in the weeks ahead.
Aside from raising the corporate tax rate to 28 percent and elevating the global minimum tax for corporations from 13 percent to 21 percent — at a time when the government has imposed strict lockdowns on people and businesses for over a year — the more than $2 trillion plan has a variety of provisions intended to move far beyond mere infrastructure.
Biden’s plan allocates $10 billion to a “Civilian Climate Corp” to ensure “environmental justice,” $20 billion to “advance racial equity and environmental justice,” and $175 billion for electric car manufacturing subsidies. The so-called infrastructure plan provides $213 billion to build 2 million “sustainable” buildings and houses — $40 million of which will go toward public housing to benefit “women, people of color, and people with disabilities.”
The “infrastructure” plan in part delivers $100 billion for school lunches to be “greener” and $12 billion for community colleges. It grants billions of dollars to eradicate “racial and gender inequities” in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math research, $100 billion for government-funded broadband internet “for every American,” and $25 billion for government-ran “childcare programs” so you can ship the little ones over for woke indoctrination.
Anything and everything is on the table for a Democratic Party seeking a complete overhaul of the American system. As noted by the Foundation for Economic Education, only about one-third of the funding in the initiative actually goes toward what is legitimately defined as infrastructure. The rest are far-left fantasies that are becoming a reality, like funding the disturbing message that systemic racism “inequities” are ubiquitous and that the nation we live in is a rotten wasteland.
The reactions to Gillibrand’s tweet, which were comical and nuanced, spoke volumes to how insane her claim was and illustrated the Biden administration’s definition of infrastructure is being wielded around to define things clearly unassociated with essential public square funding.
Juul pods are infrastructure
Busch Light 30 racks are infrastructure
Medium two-topping pizzas for $5.99 are infrastructure https://t.co/JXIiSO5HmN— Greg Price (@greg_price11) April 7, 2021
Protecting the preborn is infrastructure.
Religious freedom is infrastructure.
Fiscal responsibility is infrastructure. https://t.co/0cMwQptRey— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) April 7, 2021
Ranch dressing is infrastructure https://t.co/iXozCfKXdT
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) April 7, 2021
Abortion is infrastructure.
Gun control is infrastructure.
Forced unionization is infrastructure.
Whatever the Left wants is infrastructure.
You know what’s not? Roads & bridges.
ONLY 5% OF BIDEN’s “INFRASTRUCTURE” BILL IS ROADS & BRIDGES. 🤡🤡 https://t.co/jgP3ZEwGCy
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 7, 2021
This is a progressive plan fit for a king, which is what Biden has asserted himself to be: given he is on pace to sign the most executive orders since President Franklin D. Roosevelt, according to the American Presidency Project at the University of California-Santa Barbara.
The Democrats may in fact use budget reconciliation to bypass the Senate filibuster and ram through this abomination, just as was done with the COVID-19 “stimulus” bill. But to be certain, this is far more than an “infrastructure” bill.
