President Joe Biden’s transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg has made some pretty exaggerating comments this week. When discussing the Biden administration’s proposed $2 trillion infrastructure plan, Buttigieg rambled on about how racism is “physically built” into our highways, the history of federal infrastructure projects in Black communities, and how the American Job Plan would create a total of 19 million jobs. And when Buttigieg was called out on his claims, he admits he should’ve been “more precise.” Figures.
Buttigieg has been stressing the importance of President Biden’s infrastructure plan all week, including an overstatement of projected jobs within the plan itself. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace called out Buttigieg on his show for misleading the people.
“It turns out that the study you’re citing from Moody’s Analytics says the economy will add 16.3 million jobs without the infrastructure bill, and 2.7 million more with it. So it doesn’t, as you said last Sunday, create 19 million jobs. Again, Secretary Buttigieg, why mislead folks?” Wallace asked.
Buttigieg agrees that he should’ve been more precise in his explanation of the plan, but continues to spin the narrative that there are still 2.7 million jobs created for Americans. He talked about the broad bipartisan support for the infrastructure proposals but did not talk about its GOP support.
Republicans have been consistently criticizing the proposals, especially since only 6% of the total infrastructure plan actually goes to infrastructure. There are other parts of the legislation addressing climate change, elderly care, child care, and raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%. Some of these measures have made House Republicans and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, a crucial swing vote, rethink parts of the proposal and suggest that they could reach an agreement on a much smaller package.
“The latest liberal wish list the White House has decided to label ‘infrastructure’ is a major missed opportunity by this administration. This plan is not about rebuilding America’s backbone. Less than 6% of this massive proposal goes to roads and bridges,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Secretary Buttigieg even touted the ‘race card’ and suggested that racism was built into highways and that Biden’s infrastructure plan will reconnect some of the communities that were “divided by these dollars.” He said that the lack of federal projects in Black communities has been a “conscious choice” by previous administrations and not just an act of neglect.
And while Democrats defend the plan for “reconnecting communities,” others point out that the plan spends more money on electric vehicles than improving roads. Buttigieg even said that much of America’s major highways were built prior to the Civil Rights Act and were designed to racially divide cities, especially in the D.C area. Yet the administration only plans to spend $115 billion on highways and roads.
The rest of the bill includes $180 billion for climate-based research and development, $213 billion for affordable and sustainable housing, $137 billion on public schools and community colleges, and $174 billion on electric vehicles. So much for infrastructure. Critics pointed out that this is really the Green New Deal with politically correct terminology.
Secretary Buttigieg adds that President Biden has an “open mind” towards changing parts of the infrastructure bill but that he wants to see major action on a bill before Memorial Day. While Wallace suggested that the White House will need to come up with an entirely new plan, Buttigieg said that they will certainly not be going back to the drawing board.
Biden’s plan might create 2.7 million jobs, but what about the millions of jobs lost to businesses that would be planning to relocate due to the corporate tax rates? Democrats won’t mention that.
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