The Biden Administration has recently unveiled its new infrastructure plan, which Biden has named “The American Jobs Plan.” The bill is another step in the president’s plan to build back our country and make it a better place than before the pandemic. The bill aims to restore and revamp the economy and infrastructure while creating new jobs. President Biden wants The American Jobs Plan to: fix and upgrade highways, bridges, ports, airports, transit systems, and many other things that will help build back facilities in our country, and therefore the economy. Although, Biden wants to do more than repair public transportation, roads that we travel on, and public places that we travel through. The Biden Administration also announced that they want to improve drinking water, improve schools and childcare facilities, and train Americans for new jobs in the country. They hope to create other jobs and raise wages and benefits for essential home care workers, ensure that workers are safe and healthy in the workplace and that they can freely organize, and join a union if they choose to do so. In short, President Biden hopes this plan will repair and revamp public services that will benefit all Americans while also ensuring that workers are being paid fair wages in workplace environments that value diversity and equality.
While the American Jobs Plan sounds promising to some, the Republican Party is predominantly against it. President Biden’s initial proposal was cut back from 2.3 trillion dollars to 1.7 trillion dollars by Democrats in a bid to gain support across the aisle. Raising taxes on the wealthy and large corporations to pay for the bill did not seem feasible. Republican Senators countered with a 257 billion dollar proposal that would grow to 928 billion dollars over eight years to continue maintenance. Still, this plan only states that the funding would be used for roads, bridges, and other public spaces, services, or projects. It does not mention closing the racial wage gap, raising wages, ensuring healthy and safe working conditions, improving childcare, and more in the original proposal.
President Biden and some Senators are still hoping for a breakthrough and a compromise which is something to look for in the coming weeks. Republicans also argue that many of Biden’s goals for this plan, such as wage increases, childcare, and other benefits for American workers, do not contribute to revamping or maintaining physical infrastructure and should therefore not be included in this bill. However, everything from the original proposal will support the American economy. Many argue that they are basic needs and are therefore a critical part of the functionality of our country. Infrastructure can be defined differently by different people, and what it includes and does not include is now being debated in Congress. Whether Congress will compromise and decide what an infrastructure bill means and can consist of is yet to be seen.
