On the heels of passing one of the largest relief and recovery acts in the past century, Joe Biden is setting his sights on the great white whale of Washington politics, infrastructure. Infrastructure, the vital arteries and transport systems undergirding our economy are in a state of utter disrepair and have been for some time. Needless to say, were one or more of these crucial byways to crumble or fail — I’m looking at you Manhattan rail tunnels — it would be bad. The Gateway project would address the ticking time bomb and if Joe gets his way, the digging could begin sooner than later.
Infrastructure isn’t sexy. We’re talking about roads, railways and bridges here. Infrastructure is expensive and honestly kinda boring. It’s the stuff taxpayers expect to just get taken care of in return for paying up. Despite all this, infrastructure is super popular across the political spectrum. It creates good jobs, improves the economy and keeps bridges from crumbling into whatever body of water they happen to be traversing. Smiles all around! The problem is paying for it.
Paying for it shouldn’t be that big of an issue. Increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthy to pay for infrastructure has bipartisan support in the real world, just not with the Republicans in Congress. Congressional and Senate Republicans are never going to vote for tax increases on their donor base, so to get this thing passed Dems are going to need some serious solidarity. Folks like New Jersey’s own Josh Gottheimer are already making demands so the likelihood is the final bill will look significantly different from the initial draft, which incidentally hasn’t even been written yet. Regardless of the final form, a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure package is long overdue.
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April 04, 2021 at 07:01PM
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At last, Infrastructure Week! | Sheneman - NJ.com
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