President Biden, went to Pittsburgh to announce the outlines of his proposed $2.25 Trillion “Infrastructure Bill” and the accompanying tax hikes on corporations to help pay for it.  About one-third of the total spending, or some $621 billion, is intended for what might be called traditional “transportation infrastructure and resilience” (like roads, bridges, tunnels, etc.) with additional billions going to other more broadly defined infrastructure asset needs (such as charging stations, upstream manufacturing needs – presumably infrastructure related, etc.).  However, also hundreds of billions of dollars tucked into the proposal are at best tangential like: $400 billion toward “expanding access to quality, affordable home- or community-based care for aging relatives and people with disabilities.”  Still to come, is a release or proposal detailing a second leg or pillar of spending associated with more focused “Green New Deal” aspects.

In sum, the $2 trillion "American Rescue Plan” proposal includes:

• $621 billion to modernize transportation infrastructure,
• $400 billion to help care for the aging and those with disabilities,
• $300 billion to boost the manufacturing industry,
• $213 billion on retrofitting and building affordable housing and,
• $100 billion to expand broadband access.

Additionally, there will be:

• 20,000 miles of roadway modernized and 500,000 electric-vehicle charging stations added throughout the country.
• Lead pipes and service lines will be replaced with new-age alternatives, and home care expansion for the elderly and ill.
• An energy transition to low-carbon sources, in an effort to eliminate carbon emissions by 2035; and
• May have embedded in it a $15 minimum wage provision, and possibly taxing authority.

Critics are quick to point out that it reminds them of the Obama Administration’s stimulus bill that passed purporting to have “shovel ready jobs” that turned out to spend only about twenty (20) cents on the dollar for actual infrastructure needs. Moreover, the President has indicated he excepts/intends the plan to be paid for in part by increasing the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from the current 21 percent. [This would return the U.S. to having one of the highest corporate rates among the G-20 countries].

[For details see, White House Fact Sheet summarizing infrastructure proposal at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/]