Fee-fi-fo-fum! President Joe Biden smells taxpayer dollars of U.S. citizens. When the establishment media proclaimed in glorified press releases that the new administration was already showering money on Americans and eliminating poverty with his America Rescue Plan Act, taxpayers might have been stumped regarding the origins of these vast riches. If it were accurate reporting from public relations agents of the media wing of the Democratic Party, why did his predecessors refuse to tap this well before? It turns out that when Biden moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he planted magic money trees on the White House lawn that solved all the nation’s financial problems.
The Next Frontier of Bidenomics
Even before the $1.9 trillion stimulus and relief package was signed, sealed, and delivered, Americans were waiting for the next round of aggressive spending. Taxpayers might have been given a sneak peek based on reports from across the media landscape.
President Biden’s economic team is piecing together a multi-part $3 trillion plan that dramatically increases spending on education, infrastructure, climate change, and inequality. So far, the proposal is being separated into two parts in the hopes of passing the legislation quicker.
The first battle concentrates on infrastructure projects that the president discussed during his Build Back Better initiative on the 2020 campaign trail. The second aspect of his endeavor includes launching a national paid leave program and expanding tuition-free community college, universal pre-kindergarten, and the child tax credit. It is a laundry list of progressive goodies.
White House officials believe the first phase will be more attractive to Republicans. The second stage could generate the most debate and consternation on the other side of the aisle, mainly because of the cost and expansion in the role of government. But not all Democrats would be on board either, particularly among the moderate ones, such as Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), since the party is fractured on what to spend and how to tax. Moreover, there is already deliberation on how to proceed with such a bill: a bipartisan legislative process or the more partisan reconciliation tactics?
In recent weeks, executives from major corporations and private equity firms have been meeting with the White House and Transportation Department officials about how to pay for the plan. Reportedly, there are three ways to cover the cost – at least a portion – of the multi-trillion-dollar proposal: tax hikes, fee increases, and public-private partnerships.
Who has been contacting administration officials? Records highlight that General Motors and TC Energy have made the first move by hiring Jeff Ricchetti, the brother of President Biden’s counselor, Steve Ricchetti. The Chamber of Commerce has also had regular communications with the Biden team and the Department of Transportation.
For now, the administration is still working out the kinks and finalizing the details. According to The Wall Street Journal, President Biden is expected to be briefed on the details of the agenda before his first news conference with reporters. Overall, this astronomical amount of spending would be marketed to resuscitate the economy by allowing the United States to adopt the latest technology.
What Happened to Trump’s Infrastructure Plan?
Didn’t the previous administration have plans to overhaul the country’s roads and dams?
When former President Donald Trump won the 2016 election, copper prices recorded their largest single-session gains in more than 30 years. Markets were betting big that the Trump administration would be putting the pedal to the metal on infrastructure spending since industrial metal is critical for these types of projects. But after four years of starting, stopping, announcements, and promises, nothing came to fruition. He had pledged to spend $1 trillion “to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, and airports.” Nothing much occurred.
As Liberty Nation reported in 2018, the president became reluctant about utilizing public-private partnerships, or the P3s, with concerns over funding schemes. Indeed, as history has shown, these are often crony boondoggles rife with waste and corruption. Still, the previous administration did accomplish something in this file: reducing the time it would take to get a permit to establish infrastructure projects.
Tax, Borrow, Print
According to leftist orthodoxy, Americans who want to keep more of the fruits of their labor out of the hands of politicians and bureaucrats are the Greedy Gretchens. But politicians who wish to confiscate more of their constituents’ hard-earned dollars and cents are munificent and altruistic creatures. The only way that President Biden and the Democrats could afford to cover the hefty price-tag is through three avenues: tax, borrow, and print. Indeed, there is only so much taxing and borrowing governments can employ. As evident over the last year, Uncle Sam needs to turn to the Federal Reserve and the other magic money tree: the printing press.
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Read more from Andrew Moran.
