Infrastructure

There is a large spool of black cable waiting to be strung up on utility poles a short distance from my place. For the last few weeks, utility trucks have been up and down the road. It seems that faster, more reliable Internet is on its way to us, five miles from the state capitol.

I’m not sure this has much to do with President Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure proposal. I don’t care. The Biden plan hasn’t passed yet, and I don’t know the difference between a gigabyte and a megabyte.

But the extension of broadband to my house means no more interrupted Zoom calls with clients and the ability to produce a podcast, not to mention watching Netflix.

The black cable along the road is a symbol of what’s to come under the Biden proposal.

Two trillion is a lot of money to spend on infrastructure. Public polling tells us that a healthy majority of Americans favor the Biden proposal. That includes my Dad, who has spent a lifetime concerned about saving money and lecturing us about the lessons of the Great Depression.

“Do it now,’’ he told me this week. “Spend the money and get it done.’’

Here’s a rough list of how the money would be spent. It is a staggering and ambitious and means the Reagan/Neoliberal concern for budget deficits and government spending is officially over.

By The Numbers: Biden's $2 Trillion Infrastructure Plan

In short, we are about to spend billions on roads, bridges, airports, water pipes, and - thank goodness - internet service. We are also expanding what the word infrastructure means. (And this is where Republicans will try to kill the bill)

$10 billion for a Climate Action Corp.

$400 billion for senior care.

$30 billion for pandemic preparedness.

Anyone who has flown into Kennedy Airport, ridden AMTRAK, or watched public works crews fix underground pipes in Montpelier, VT knows that these projects are essential to modern living. And finally we are seeing child care as infrastructure.

But it’s not the projects that are surprising. It is the way Biden proposes to pay for them. Baked into the plan is a proposal to dramatically shift the way corporations pay taxes.

We have heard Bernie Sanders rant for years about Amazon and other companies paying ZERO federal tax while the rest of us pay 38 percent. And we have watched since the 1980s as Republicans cut income taxes for corporations while pay for middle-class working people stayed the same.

As technological innovation has soared, so have corporate profits. Yet, most companies oppose a hike in the minimum wage, paid family leave, and child care policies that would make the American system more humane.

Biden would change that.

He would raise the tax rate on corporate income to 28 percent from 21 percent. Before you bankers complain, I would remind you that the tax rate was 35 percent before the Trump tax cut and much higher in the Eisenhower administration.

But the core of the Biden plan is not the increase in the tax rate. It’s a set of companion measures to tax the profits that American companies hide in low-tax countries.

So to recap — in one week Joe Biden has announced the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and a fundamental remaking of the American tax system along with spending billions on improving the country and protecting it from climate change.

This goes far beyond anything Obama did.

What is curious is the relative silence of Republicans on these actions. It seems the president has Republicans in a box. The party is still enthralled, scared, and divided over Trump. Will all Republicans vote against the Biden plan, forcing Vice President Kamala Harris to break a tie in the Senate for it to pass?

Republican objections range from ballooning the federal budget deficit to too much spending on liberal “socialist’’ programs. It’s a very tired line.

Mitch McConnell called it the “wrong prescription for America,’’ a somewhat tepid opposition. The New York Times had no story in the entire paper Sunday about the issue.

The problem for Republicans is how do you tell your middle-class voter back home that you are against them getting faster Internet, better roads, and care for their elderly parents?

Trump said he would focus on infrastructure and never did. Instead, his captive supplicants focus on preventing transgender kids from playing high school sports, suppressing the vote, and defending the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

Something is going on in the Republican Party that bears deeper examination in the coming weeks. The debate over the Biden infrastructure plan will reveal where the party plans to go in the next generation.

Their complaints about Democratic spending are hollow and went out the door with the Trump tax cut. And with Biden pulling all US troops out of Afghanistan, the traditional Republican dominance over foreign policy is gone.

There is a big future coming, and Joe Biden is proposing it. Technological change is remaking society. Biden and the Democrats are embracing it. For some reason, Republicans are trying to put that change back in the bottle and return to the 1950s. I can’t figure out why Republicans are not picking up the flag that embraces the future - but I do have some ideas.

In the meantime, I invite your comments, especially your disagreements.