In a significant development, the third in line to the presidency has urged President Joe Biden to seriously consider his future, emphasizing the need for a thorough evaluation of his plans and policies. This call comes at a crucial time when the American Rescue Plan is making strides in changing the course of the pandemic and providing relief to working families. However, the current situation demands more than just a return to the pre-pandemic status quo. It is a moment to reimagine and rebuild a new economy that can address the challenges of the future.
The American Jobs Plan, a cornerstone of Biden’s vision, aims to invest in America by creating millions of good jobs, rebuilding the country’s infrastructure, and positioning the United States to out-compete global rivals like China. Public domestic investment as a share of the economy has seen a significant decline of over 40 percent since the 1960s. The American Jobs Plan seeks to reverse this trend by investing in the nation’s infrastructure on a scale not seen since the construction of the interstate highways and the Space Race.
Despite being the wealthiest country in the world, the United States ranks 13th in terms of overall infrastructure quality. Decades of disinvestment have left roads, bridges, and water systems in disrepair, while the electric grid remains vulnerable to catastrophic outages. Many Americans still lack access to affordable, high-speed internet and quality housing. The pandemic has exacerbated these issues, leading to job losses and threatening economic security, particularly for women, whose labor force participation has seen a significant decline.
The President’s plan aims to address these challenges by investing in infrastructure and competitiveness, creating good-paying union jobs, and addressing long-standing racial injustices. The plan targets 40 percent of the benefits of climate and clean infrastructure investments to disadvantaged communities and invests in rural areas and communities affected by the transition to clean energy.
Key components of the plan include modernizing 20,000 miles of highways, roads, and main streets, fixing the ten most economically significant bridges, and repairing the worst 10,000 smaller bridges. It also aims to replace thousands of buses and rail cars, renew airports, and expand transit and rail into new communities. Additionally, the plan seeks to deliver clean drinking water, a renewed electric grid, and high-speed broadband to all Americans, eliminating lead pipes and service lines in drinking water systems and bringing affordable, reliable internet to rural areas.
The plan also focuses on building, preserving, and retrofitting more than two million homes and commercial buildings, modernizing schools and childcare facilities, and upgrading veterans’ hospitals and federal buildings. It aims to solidify the infrastructure of the care economy by creating jobs and raising wages and benefits for essential home care workers, who are predominantly women of color.
Furthermore, the plan seeks to revitalize manufacturing, secure U.S. supply chains, invest in research and development, and train Americans for future jobs. It emphasizes creating good-quality jobs that pay prevailing wages in safe and healthy workplaces, ensuring workers have the right to organize, join a union, and bargain collectively.
Alongside the American Jobs Plan, President Biden is introducing a Made in America Tax Plan to ensure corporations pay their fair share of taxes and encourage job creation at home. The plan aims to stop profit shifting and ensure other nations do not gain a competitive edge by becoming tax havens.
The American Jobs Plan represents a historic public investment, primarily consisting of one-time capital investments in the nation’s productivity and long-term growth. It proposes investing about 1 percent of GDP per year over eight years to upgrade infrastructure, revitalize manufacturing, invest in basic research and science, shore up supply chains, and solidify the care infrastructure. Leading economists agree that these investments will create good jobs now and pay off for future generations by making the country more competitive and communities stronger.
President Biden is calling on Congress to make a historic investment in transportation infrastructure, including roads, bridges, rail, ports, airports, and transit systems. The plan aims to produce good-quality jobs with strong labor standards and advance racial equity by providing better jobs and transportation options to underserved communities. It also seeks to extend opportunities to small businesses in the design, construction, and manufacturing of new infrastructure and component parts.
The plan includes a $621 billion investment in transportation infrastructure and resilience, with specific allocations for repairing roads and bridges, modernizing public transit, investing in reliable passenger and freight rail service, and creating jobs in the electric vehicle market. It also proposes investments in ports, waterways, and airports, as well as initiatives to redress historic inequities and build the future of transportation infrastructure.
In addition to transportation, the plan focuses on making infrastructure more resilient to climate change, with dedicated investments to safeguard critical infrastructure and services, defend vulnerable communities, and maximize the resilience of land and water resources. It also aims to ensure clean, safe drinking water for all communities, modernize drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater systems, and tackle new contaminants.
The plan also seeks to revitalize America’s digital infrastructure by bringing affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband to every American. This includes building high-speed broadband infrastructure to reach 100 percent coverage and prioritizing support for broadband networks owned or operated by local governments, non-profits, and co-operatives.
As the third in line to the presidency urges President Biden to seriously consider his future, the American Jobs Plan stands as a comprehensive blueprint for rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, addressing long-standing inequities, and positioning the United States for future success. The plan’s ambitious scope and focus on equity and sustainability reflect a commitment to creating a stronger, more resilient America for generations to come.
Source: Various sources
