Tag Archives: Infrastructure Bill

Where Are The High-Speed Internet Connections?

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On Saturday, Breitbart posted an article about one of the provisions in the bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. The Bill included $42.45 billion from Congress to deploy high-speed Internet to millions of American.

The article reports:

“In 2021, the Biden Administration got $42.45 billion from Congress to deploy high-speed Internet to millions of Americans. Years later, it has not connected even 1 person with those funds. In fact, it now says that no construction projects will even start until 2025 at earliest,” the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner wrote.

“Meanwhile, the Biden Admin has been layering a partisan political agenda on top of this $42.45B program – a liberal wish list that has nothing to do with connecting Americans. Climate change mandates, tech biases, DEI requirements, favoring government-run networks + more,” he continued.

Carr is specifically slamming the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which allocated $42.45 billion to support broadband infrastructure and adoption.

The program was established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), otherwise known as the so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill. The bill had no conservative victories and had many leftist carveouts, as Breitbart News detailed.

The article concludes:

Carr continued, saying that the BEAD program fails to close the “digital divide,” or the gap between with those with high-speed internet and those without.

“The Biden Administration is barreling towards a broadband blunder. Congress has appropriated enough money to end the digital divide, but the Biden Administration is squandering the moment by putting partisan political goals above smart policy,” the FCC commissioner explained. “It is doing so through rate regulation, through union, technology, and DEI preferences, and through a thumb on the scale for government run networks. All of this threatens to leave rural communities behind.”

You would think that at some point the Republicans in Congress would learn that the bills that the Democrats want bi-partisan support on are never what they appear to be. This was another spending boondoggle that the Republicans stupidly endorsed. We need new Republicans who won’t be fooled (or bribed) by the Democrats.

Sad News For America

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The Epoch Times is reporting that yesterday the House of Representatives voted to pass a bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Unfortunately, thirteen Republicans joined with Democrats to pass the bill. Oddly enough, six progressive Democrats—members of the “Squad”—voted against the measure. Evidently the squad has grown–there used to be only four members. Now Cori Bush, a Democrat from Missouri, and Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat from New York, have joined the group.

The article reports:

The final vote was 228-206, with 13 Republicans joining Democrats in support of the bill. The Republicans were Reps. John Katko (R-N.Y.), Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Don Young (R-Alaska), Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Fred Upon (R-Mich.), Don Bacon (R-Nebr.), Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.), and David McKinley (R-W.Va.)

…House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had sought to hold votes on both bills on Friday but was forced to postpone the vote on the Build Back Better bill, after some moderate Democrats said they wanted a least 72 hours to review the text of the bill, and to review the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) scores on the spending bill to understand the “true cost of the legislation.” They also wanted the Senate to confirm it would not make changes to the bill in the interim period.

The New York Post reports:

In an effort to get the entire Democratic caucus on board, the legislation was further amended on Thursday to change provisions pertaining to drug pricing and the state and local tax deduction (SALT) — a priority for members that represent high-tax states like New York and New Jersey. 

Under the latest version of the Build Back Better legislation, the SALT cap would increase from $10,000 to $80,00 through 2030 before returning to $10,000 in 2031.

Drug pricing language was also altered to provide an extra year before Medicare is permitted to negotiate prices on biologics once those drugs hit the market.

The bipartisan infrastructure measure — negotiated by a group of 22 bipartisan lawmakers led by Sinema and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) — includes $550 billion in new spending, with $110 billion set to be allocated toward roads, bridges and other projects; $65 billion toward broadband, $66 billion to be spent on passenger and freight rail, $55 billion for water infrastructure, $39.2 billion for public transit, $47.2 billion for resiliency purposes, $7.5 billion for electric vehicle infrastructure and $21 billion to address pollution. 

Note that of the $1.2 trillion spent, only $110 billion goes toward roads, bridges and other projects.

Make no mistake about it, the change in the SALT cap is a tax cut for the rich in Democrat states where taxes are high due to reckless spending. It will cut the amount of revenue coming into the treasury and reward the states that voted for Joe Biden. It causes states with lower taxes to essentially subsidize the higher tax states.

We all remember a reasonable infrastructure bill that was suggested during the Trump administration that Speaker Pelosi refused to pass because she didn’t want President Trump to get credit for it. Now we have a pork-laden bill that includes things that no rational person would call infrastructure. We need to elect people who will be fiscally responsible and put patriotism over party.

When Common Core Math Comes To Congress

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Yesterday Trending Politics posted an article about a recent Tweet by Senator Bernie Sanders.

The article reports:

Sanders tweeted: “2 senators cannot be allowed to defeat what 48 senators and 210 House members want. We must stand with the working families of our country. We must combat climate change. We must delay passing the Infrastructure Bill until we pass a strong Reconciliation Bill.”

But that’s the way our system is set up. The Senate is supposed to be the deliberative body and the House of Representatives is supposed to be more easily swayed by the trends of the moment. The Senate is there to protect America from any rash action taken by the House of Representatives. That system was somewhat diluted by the Seventeen Amendment, but traces of it remain in place.

The article notes a few Tweets in response to Senator Sanders’ Tweet:

“This is a pretty hilarious way of trying to say “48 senators should win a vote over 52 senators when it’s a bill I like.” That’s some pretty creative math,” said one Twitter user.

“It’s 52 senators defeating what 48 senators want,” said Nick Pappas. “You need Manchin & Sinema because all 50 senators on the GOP side reject your proposal outright. Get a majority in the chamber if your plan is so popular.”

“48 senators and 210 House members are, last I checked, a minority of both chambers,” said Dan McLaughlin.

“In other words, 52 senators are defeating what 48 senators want and 225 House members are defeating what 210 want,” tweeted Greg Price.

“I know math isn’t a big thing with socialists, but it’s at least 52 Senators rejecting your radical agenda. And 52 is a bigger number than 48.”

“Bernie’s policies are based on the idea that 25 states do not matter,” said Tim Pool.

Please follow the link above to read the article for more Twitter entertainment.

While We Are All Watching Afghanistan…

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On Tuesday while everyone was focused on Afghanistan, the House of Representatives approved $3.5 trillion budget resolution and advanced a bipartisan infrastructure bill. So what is in the bill?

Yesterday The New York Post reported on some aspects of the bill.

The article reports:

House Democrats are now writing their version of the $3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” bill, detailing all the wish-list items they mean to ram through with zero Republican votes — including a host of economy-killing tax hikes.

No matter that the Trump-era tax cuts were bringing the best working-class wage gains in years before COVID hit: Dems mean to reverse them all and then some.

The Senate blueprint for the bill, for example, moves the corporate income-tax rate to 28 percent from the 21 percent level set by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It also follows President Joe Biden’s call to double the federal capital-gains tax.

Both moves would slow the kind of business investment that allows for new jobs and rising wages.

President Trump’s economic policies were the reason the economy grew so well during the early years of his presidency and recovered so quickly from the Covid pandemic. Reversing those policies will have an adverse impact on the American economy.

Unincorporated businesses will be hit by increases in the top personal-income-tax rate. Some Democrats are calling for steep hikes in that area. They are obviously unaware that this will cause many small business to close (or they don’t care). Since the small business is the backbone of the American economy, one wonders why the Democrats would want to tax them out of existence. This is also one way to eliminate the middle class.

The article concludes:

The House might also take up Sen. Liz Warren’s push for a special 7 percent surtax on corporate profits above $100 million or embrace new “green” taxes on the fuels that still provide nearly all of America’s power.

All to help fund a host of new or enlarged social programs that would vastly increase the ranks of Dem-supporting government-employee unions, as well as green-energy spending that would likely reward Democrat-friendly companies.

We are not looking at tax policies that will help grow the American economy. We are looking at tax policies that will help grow dependency on government.

The Damage Done And The Damage To Come

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The Epoch Times reported the following today:

The Senate on Tuesday morning passed the $1.2 trillion White House-backed infrastructure bill after weeks of debate, although it’s not clear whether the bill will advance in the Democrat-controlled House.

The measure, called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, was hashed out by a bipartisan group of senators and President Joe Biden’s administration. The bill, which passed 69-30, will include $550 billion in new federal spending over five years.

The 2,700-page-long bill invests $110 billion toward roads, bridges, and major projects; provides some $66 billion to passenger and freight rail; $65 billion to rebuild the electric grid; $65 billion to expand broadband internet lines; $55 billion for water pipes including replacing lead pipes; and more.

“It has taken quite a long time, and there have been detours and everything else, but this will do a whole lot of good for America, and the Senate can be proud it has passed this,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said about the bill.

While some have described the bill as “bipartisan,” several prominent Republicans have vocally opposed it and claimed it would hand a victory to Democrats in Congress ahead of a fraught 2022 midterm election season. Former President Donald Trump again pilloried Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who voted in favor of the measure, for giving the bill his blessing while publicly questioning the Kentucky Republican’s leadership capacity.

On Sunday The Conservative Treehouse reported:

Good grief these UniParty Senators are infuriating.  During this interview with Maria Bartiromo, North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer (U-DC) actually has the nerve to brag about $450 billion in infrastructure spending amid a phase-one bill that has $1.2 trillion in total.  What’s the other $800 billion dollars being spent on doofus?

Another of Cramer’s advocacy points is how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports the bill; as if that’s a good thing.  Making matters worse, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer devised a process pledging that this part of the infrastructure bill (phase-1) will only advance if it is married to the House party-line legislation (phase-2) that will spend as much as $3.5 trillion MORE on climate change action, paid leave policies, health care expansion, and other progressive agenda items.

The insufferable republicans that support the phase-one bill (The DeceptiCon crew) are, by direct consequence, advancing the $3.5 trillion phase-two bill that is entirely a Democrat spending spree on the Green New Deal and other insane initiatives. Acckkkk… we desperately need a second party in DC.

The passage of this bill is expected to pave the way for the reconciliation passage of the $3.5 trillion Democrat budget resolution.

Yesterday Red State Observer reported:

The framework for a $3.5 trillion Democrat budget resolution includes plans to provide amnesty to millions of illegal aliens living in the United States via the filibuster-proof reconciliation process.

On Monday, Senate Democrats unveiled the budget framework, which includes a series of instructions for various Senate committees to craft specific plans. As such, the framework instructs the Senate Judiciary Committee to spend $107 billion in American taxpayer money on amnesty for illegal aliens.

The language of the framework is vague, asking the Judiciary Committee members to give “lawful permanent status for qualified immigrants.” Those who would qualify for such an amnesty remain unclear.

The cost of the amnesty to taxpayers is just slightly lower than Senate Budget Committee chairman Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) amnesty plan, which was projected to cost $150 billion.

Any amnesty plan crafted by Democrats is expected to give green cards, which lead to naturalized American citizenship, millions of illegal aliens eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), those with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), those working on U. S. farms, and those considered “essential” workers.

This bill is not a step forward for Americans. It is a giant step into more government control of our lives and spending that will create massive inflation.

As The Infrastructure Bill Inches Forward

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There are a few twists and turns in the process of dealing with the infrastructure bill that is before Congress.

The Epoch Times reported yesterday:

Buried in the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” in the U.S. Senate is approval for the Department of Transportation (DOT) to test a new federal tax on every mile driven by individual Americans.

The bill directs Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to establish a pilot program to demonstrate a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee designed “to restore and maintain the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund.”

The objectives of the pilot program include:

To test the design, acceptance, implementation, and financial sustainability of a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee.

To address the need for additional revenue for surface transportation infrastructure and a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee.

To provide recommendations relating to the adoption and implementation of a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee.

Although the new tax is described as a pilot program and would initially rely upon “volunteers” representing all 50 states, the infrastructure measure would also require the Treasury Department to establish a mechanism to collect motor vehicle per-mile user fees from the participants.

Make no mistake–this will eventually be a tax on all Americans if it is allowed to go through.

On Monday, Breitbart reported:

Earlier in the year, President Joe Biden nominated Gayle (Manchin – Senator Joe Manchin’s wife) to be the co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission. This commission is an economic development partnership involving the federal government and 13 states.

The Washington Times reported that the bill’s language makes the Appalachian Regional Commission “set to receive an additional billion dollars over the next four years. The new funding is set to increase the agency’s federal budget by more than 50% annually.” This year the commission requested $235 million from the taxpayer-funded federal government for their operation funding. That was already a 30 percent increase from the $175 million they received in 2020.

For this to possibly secure the senator’s vote, the commission, where his wife makes $160 thousand annually, is given an additional $200 million annually to focus on projects, which equals one billion dollars from fiscal years 2022 to 2026. The Times added:

ARC’s funding increase is significantly larger than other federal regional commissions are set to receive in the infrastructure package.

Apart from money, the infrastructure package also expands the ARC’s authority to increase broadband internet access by providing grants and “technical assistance.”

The text of the bill was originally obtained exclusively by Breitbart News from U.S. Senate sources not authorized to leak it after showing “concern that the murky and secretive process behind this bill may have led to widespread corruption throughout its nearly three thousand pages.”

When there are almost three thousand pages in a bill, there are bound to be some questionable items.

And finally, Zero Hedge posted the following today:

An already-tenuous $1 trillion infrastructure spending package has been thrown into further disarray this week, after lawmakers filed nearly 300 amendments to the legislation, according to The Hill, which notes that in several instances “senators are holding their colleagues’ amendments hostage by objecting to voting on them unless their own priorities are also guaranteed a vote.”

Stay tuned.

The Democrats Are Still Going After Single-Family Housing

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Just the News reported yesterday that the budget bill the Democrats in the House of Representatives are currently drafting may include the Democrat’s plan to “eliminate exclusionary zoning” for single-family homes in America’s cities. This is the bill that the Democrats plan on passing in the Senate by using the reconciliation process, meaning that the Republicans have no way to stop it.

The article reports:

A portion of President Biden’s $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan offers grants to cities that “take concrete steps” to end “exclusionary zoning” for single-family homes.

Under a section titled “Eliminate exclusionary zoning and harmful land use policies,” Biden’s jobs plan argues that “for decades, exclusionary zoning laws — like minimum lot sizes, mandatory parking requirements, and prohibitions on multifamily housing — have inflated housing and construction costs and locked families out of areas with more opportunities.”

According to the White House fact sheet on the plan, which has not been formally drafted into legislation yet, Biden is “calling on Congress to enact an innovative, new competitive grant program that awards flexible and attractive funding to jurisdictions that take concrete steps to eliminate such needless barriers to producing affordable housing.”

The article notes:

The $1.2 trillion infrastructure agreement that a bipartisan group of senators reached with the White House does not mention exclusionary zoning. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that Democrats would seek to pass the parts of Biden’s jobs plan and $1.8 trillion American Families Plan that are left out of the bipartisan framework on infrastructure.

Michigan Democrat Sen. Debbie Stabenow, chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, said the Democrat-led Congress should enact Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda instead of only focusing on the bipartisan agreement on physical infrastructure spending.

“It’s not just a slogan, we want to come out of this stronger than ever, and the bipartisan effort on infrastructure is one piece of that,” said Stabenow, a member of the Senate Budget Committee. “But we need to do the rest of what needs to be done in the jobs plan and the family plan to really meet the needs of our economy and our families.”

It should be noted that the tax and spend programs that the Democrats are trying to pass will ultimately hurt American families. As inflation increase, the spending power of every American decreases. As the price of a gallon of gasoline increase, it is essentially a tax increase on every American. The current policies being supported by the Democrat party will negatively impact the American economy and all Americans.

Hidden In The Infrastructure Bill

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I have written before about the Biden administration’s plan to end single-family housing (article here). Because home ownership is historically part of the American dream, I have no idea why this is a goal. However, hidden in the infrastructure bill is an item that will begin to end that dream.

Just the News posted an article (updated today) about the infrastructure bill.

The article reports:

The largest item in President Biden’s originally proposed $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill “is intended to literally eliminate local zoning, single-family zoning,” former N.Y. Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey told the John Solomon Reports podcast. 

“[P]eople spend a lifetime dreaming that they’re going to have a home with a plot of lawn around it,” said McCaughey. “They can let their kids play on the lawn, go out and mow the lawn, it’s a way of life. And the Biden administration wants to eliminate that. Their message is, ‘You can’t have that unless everybody can have that.’

“So unless you have multifamily units, you know, some sort of apartment building, on the same street in the same neighborhood — it’s not the same town because all towns now have areas for apartment dwellers, you know. But no, that’s not good enough for them. They want to put bus lines on all the little streets, and that’s going to change the way of life.”

…The Biden administration negotiated a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure framework on Thursday, which does not include affordable housing, according to Business Insider.

However, afterward, Biden said that the rest of the original infrastructure plan will go through as a budget reconciliation bill in addition to the bipartisan version. Upon learning this, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Biden can “forget” the bipartisan bill. “Most Republicans could not have known that,” he said. “There’s no way. You look like a f–ing idiot now.” 

We need to pray for some patriotic Senators who are willing to vote to protect the American dream of owning your own home.

Looking For A Few Patriotic Democrats In The Senate

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Remember the campaign promise by President Biden that he would bring back unity. Well, his definition of unity is when everyone does what he wants them to do. There is no room for any other action or opinion. That is becoming very obvious in the way the infrastructure bill is being handled.

Just the News is reporting today that the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was worked out that did not include the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan will be modified to include the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan and then passed by reconciliation in the Senate. If you are not familiar with the Cloward-Piven strategy, this would be a really good time to look it up.

The article reports:

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal told Just the News that there will be a filibuster-proof reconciliation bill passed in the Democratic-led House that includes President Biden’s entire American Families Plan.

The article concludes:

Neal was asked if he thinks the entire American Families Plan will be weaved into a reconciliation bill if it’s left out of the bipartisan infrastructure framework congressional negotiators have reached with the White House.

“Yeah, it seems to be as though, based on some of the early comments the president had that it looks to me, not knowing all the details yet, that there’s going to have to be a reconciliation bill,” Neal said on Thursday. 

The $1.2 trillion bipartisan framework does not include the new spending programs that would be created if Biden’s American Families Plan is enacted. 

Essentially, the bi-partisan agreement that was worked out is going to be scrapped in favor of what the Democrats wanted in the first place. Hopefully there might be a Democrat in the Senate that would vote against this, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Bipartisanship Doesn’t Really Mean The Same Thing To Everyone

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The Epoch Times posted an article today about a bipartisan deal on infrastructure spending reached between the White House and a group of Senators. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it. Well, not so fast.

The article reports:

Biden appeared alongside a group of lawmakers, including Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), and others.

“To answer the direct question, we have a deal,” Biden told reporters at the White House. “We have made serious compromises on both ends.”

The announcement came after senators worked for weeks to craft a package that would garner enough support from both Republicans and Democrats. According to a fact sheet released by the White House on June 24, the bill would be worth about $1.2 trillion and would make investments in “clean transportation infrastructure,” as well as “clean power infrastructure” and the “remediation of legacy pollution.”

According to drafts of the agreement, lawmakers sought $579 billion of spending above expected federal levels that totals $974 billion over a five-year span and $1.2 trillion if it continues over the course of eight years.

But despite the bipartisan agreement announcement, it isn’t yet clear if certain Democrats or Republicans would support it.

So far, it sounds pretty bipartisan, but wait…

The article concludes:

Hours after the announcement, Biden told reporters that he wouldn’t sign the measure unless the American Families Plan was also passed by Congress.

“Less than two hours after publicly endorsing our colleagues’ bipartisan agreement on infrastructure, the President took the extraordinary step of threatening to veto it. That’s not the way to show you’re serious about getting a bipartisan outcome,” said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on the floor of the Senate.

But Portman, one of the Republicans who support the bipartisan agreement, said on June 24 that it’s important that Democrats and Republicans were “able to come together on a core infrastructure package.”

Manchin also praised the deal, saying it’s a “tremendous opportunity for us to show the rest of the world that we can still get big things done in a bipartisan way.”

That’s not bipartisan–either the infrastructure bill as a product of bipartisan negotiations gets signed on its own merits or you have broken the implied promise of the bipartisan negotiations. It is quite possible that the negotiations on the infrastructure bill were strictly for show so that the Republicans can be blamed when President Biden refuses to sign it. Those in Washington have forgotten who they are supposed to represent. Congress and the Presidency have become one big political power game. It is time to unelect anyone currently in office who is not properly representing the interests of the voters.

Inflation Rears Its Ugly Head

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Just the News is reporting today that the U.S. consumer price index rose 5% in May compared to the same time a year earlier.

The article reports:

The index represents the average change in prices of goods and services such as food, energy, housing costs, and others. It rose 5% in May compared to the same time year earlier. The increase was higher than expected, with the Dow Jones forecasting a slightly lower of 4.7% rise, according to CNBC.

The increase is the largest since 5.3% rise In 2008, just before the financial crisis causing the worst recession since the Great Depression.

The goods with the highest price increases were used cars and trucks, with prices surging 7.3%. Airline tickets were a close second, with prices climbing 7% from a year earlier as the pandemic cut air travel substantially. Food prices have stayed similar to those a year ago, up only 2.2%.

The article concludes:

People are also concerned over the rise of inflation that could be caused by President Joe Biden’s nearly $2 trillion COVID relief package and similarly priced proposed infrastructure package.

The Federal Reserve has not expressed alarm about the increases. Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has said he expects the pressure on prices to be temporary as the economy reopens after the pandemic, according to Fox News.

Increased government spending will cause inflation. At some point the interest on our national debt is going to cripple our economy. At that point the dollar will be devalued to pay off the debt and the average American will be left with worthless money. The solution to this is to elect people to Congress who will be fiscally responsible. Currently there are actually a few Congressmen who are fiscally responsible, but not enough to make a difference.

Wanting The Issue Rather Than The Solution

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One of the more frequently used tricks in Washington is to create a bill (supposedly to solve a problem) that cannot pass because it is not a good bill, blame the opposition for not passing it, and then claim that you wanted to do the right thing, but were stopped by the other political party. Then you campaign on the issue, claiming that you will solve the problem if you are re-elected. Of course you never solve the problem, you just keep bringing up the issue. It looks as if that is where we are with the infrastructure bill.

Yesterday Breitbart posted the following:

On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) stated that during negotiations over an infrastructure package, “we offered the president basically what he asked us to do the first time we met with him, which was a trillion dollars over eight years, including baseline spending.” And that despite Republicans drawing a red line on tax increases, “the last offer that I got from the president had four tax increases in it.”

Capito said, “Well, the president ended the talks today with me on a very cordial call. I am extremely disappointed. Because we offered the president basically what he asked us to do the first time we met with him, which was a trillion dollars over eight years, including baseline spending. And that it wouldn’t include a tax increase, and those were our — that was our red line, not his. And the last offer that I got from the president had four tax increases in it. And it also was much closer in numbers than what the White House is putting out right now. So, I’m disappointed with that.”

I would like to see a real infrastructure deal that focuses on crumbling highways and bridges, but I seriously doubt anything like that has a chance of passing. However, if Congress changes hands next year, there is a strong possibility such a bill would pass. Democrat Presidents traditionally don’t mind accomplishing things with a Republican Congress as long as they can take credit for the accomplishment (for example, Clinton and welfare reform). If a Republican Congress is elected next year, it is remotely possible that the Biden/Harris presidency could be successful.

When You Want To Change The Political Climate But You Don’t Want To Move

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On Wednesday The Epoch Times posted an article about a recent vote in several counties in Oregon.

The article reports:

Several counties in Oregon on May 18 voted to consider joining the state of Idaho, which is part of a long-shot movement to break away from the state that has long been dominated by politicians in Portland.

Voters in Malheur, Sherman, Grant, Baker, and Lake counties approved various measures that require county officials to take steps to look into moving the Idaho border west to incorporate the counties.

The grassroots group Move Oregon’s Border for a Greater Idaho is aiming to have the eastern counties—which are mostly rural—join Idaho because they believe they would be better off with Idaho’s more conservative political leadership.

“This election proves that rural Oregon wants out of Oregon,” lead petitioner Mike McCarter said in a statement to local media outlets on May 18. “If Oregon really believes in liberal values such as self-determination, the Legislature won’t hold our counties captive against our will. If we’re allowed to vote for which government officials we want, we should be allowed to vote for which government we want as well.”

McCarter told the Oregonian last year that the bid to join Idaho is more of a “lifestyle/values judgment” that separates rural and urban residents.

The timing of this is very interesting. On Wednesday, Townhall posted an article about some of the items contained in President Biden’s infrastructure bill.

Townhall reports:

If you saved your money and bought a house in the suburbs, your investment and lifestyle are under attack. President Joe Biden is pushing to end single-family zoning. The biggest item in Biden’s infrastructure bill, now being negotiated with Congress, is $213 billion he claims will to increase affordable housing. Biden wants to put the federal government in charge of zoning and distribute apartment buildings throughout single-family home neighborhoods.

That $213 billion is nearly twice the spending on roads and bridges. It will change towns everywhere and torpedo the American dream of a house with a patch of lawn.

Biden’s plan should be called “hypocrisy housing.” Its backers are hypocrites. Biden himself owns a four-acre lakefront home in upscale Greenville, Delaware, where there is absolutely no public housing, affordable housing or rentals that accept housing vouchers. And don’t expect any to be built next door to the Bidens.

Democrats realize that people who live in the suburbs do not vote for them, so they are planning to dilute the suburban vote by moving people from the city, with the mindset of city residents, there. This would dramatically change America.

The article at The Epoch Times concludes:

Throughout the history of the United States, changing state lines has been a rare occurrence—all taking place before the 20th century. In 1792, Kentucky was created from Virginia’s territory, Maine was created from Massachusetts in 1820, and West Virginia in 1863 was admitted into the United States when Union states and counties separated themselves from the Confederate ones during the Civil War.

Voters in Oregon’s Harney and Douglas counties will hold a vote on similar measures in upcoming elections.

McCarter told media outlets that Idaho state Reps. Barbara Ehardt and Judy Boyle, both Republicans, are planning to introduce a bill about a possible relocation of the Idaho–Oregon border in January 2022.

I wonder if we will see more of this in the future.

 

What’s In The Infrastructure Bill?

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Yesterday Breitbart shared the following Tweet by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand:

That is the current definition of infrastructure in the Biden administration.

Yesterday The Daily Signal posted an article listing some basic facts about the infrastructure bill. Below is a short list. Please follow the link to the article to read the details.

1. Dishonest advertising: Less than 5% of spending goes to roads and bridges.

2. $2.75 trillion tax hike would stunt post-pandemic economic recovery.

3. Big spending won’t deliver promised job creation.

4. Federal takeover of local responsibilities.

5. Undercuts businesses by micromanaging economic development.

6. $700 billion in corporate welfare and tax credits.

7. Over $400 billion in welfare and health spending.

8. Wasteful $165 billion handout for transit and Amtrak.

9. $174 billion in subsidies for electric vehicles.

The article concludes:

The bottom line: Central planning and federal micromanaging doesn’t work.

Biden’s latest spending proposal demonstrates that he has an unshakable faith in the federal government to manage the economy and tinker with how Americans live their lives. This is exactly the wrong direction for a nation as large and as diverse as ours.

Congress should take a hard pass on the plan.

I really don’t think this is what our Founding Fathers had in mind.

The Proposal To End Single-Family Housing In America

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One of the great things about America is that many Americans are homeowners. As homeowners, they create individual homes that reflect their personalities. That is the reason driving through many of our cities can be a fascinating study of architecture and how it changed through our history. Well, if the Biden administration gets its way, single-family housing will be a thing of the past.

The National Review posted an article today detailing how the Biden administration is planning to eliminate single-family housing:

The article reports:

How, exactly, does Biden plan to end single-family zoning? According to the fact sheet released by the White House, “Biden is calling on Congress to enact an innovative new competitive grant program that awards flexible and attractive funding to jurisdictions that take concrete steps to eliminate [‘exclusionary zoning’].” In other words, Biden wants to use a big pot of federal grant money as bait. If a county or municipality agrees to weaken or eliminate its single-family zoning, it gets the federal bucks.

The wildly overreaching Obama-Biden era Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation — which Biden has pledged to revive — works in a similar fashion. The difference is that by adding another gigantic pot of federal money to the Community Development Block Grants that are the lure of AFFH, Biden makes it that much harder for suburbs to resist applying — and that much more punishing to jurisdictions that forgo a share of the federal taxes they’ve already paid so as to protect their right to self-rule.

Are federal carrots enough, however? Prosperous suburbs may forgo the grants in an effort to secure their independence. The success of Biden’s initiative depends in part on exactly how much money gets allocated to grants tied to zoning reform. The details of that ask haven’t yet been released, but the $213 billion allocated to Biden’s total affordable housing initiative leave room for an awfully big pot for the anti-zoning portion.

I don’t think our Founding Fathers envisioned a country where the government could tell you what kind of a house you could live in.

The article concludes:

Last summer, when California floated a measure to kill single-family zoning, there was powerful opposition from residents who objected to a law that would make their neighborhoods denser, noisier, and more filled with traffic. Predominantly minority residents in South Los Angeles saw the bill as an “affront to how hard Black Americans fought to join single-family neighborhoods, battling redlining, racist covenants and even targeted violence. And they worried that suddenly relaxing zoning rules would not only ruin the low density they enjoyed, but also unleash an investment flood that would accelerate displacement of the Black community as developers scooped up old homes and built new ones unaffordable to most in the community.”

The zoning issue is tough and complex. It balances principled libertarian objections to zoning and the interests of developers, on the one hand, against core principles of federalism and local control, on the other. Massive spending and taxation are fundamental to the federal effort to override local zoning laws. Neighborhood preservation vies with “creative destruction.” There are plenty of complex, conflicting, and legitimate considerations in the balance. But reducing the zoning issue to bogus charges of “racism” is the way Democrats play the game nowadays.

If Republicans find the courage to stand up to the usual nonsense and oppose this big-government attempt to kill off the federalist system itself, they will find not only the vast majority of Republicans, but a great many independents and Democrats in their corner.

This is something to watch. If the infrastructure bill passes the Senate, it will not only kill our wallets, it will also end a lot of our freedom to choose where and how we live.

That’s A Big Change In The Numbers

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Yesterday The Washington Times posted an article about the Biden administration’s revised estimate of how many jobs the infrastructure bill would create. The numbers have changed dramatically.

The article reports:

The White House clarified Tuesday that one study projects that President Biden’s $2.25 trillion infrastructure package will create roughly 2.7 million jobs — not the 19 million jobs administration officials had touted over the weekend.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki cited a study from Moody’s that projects the U.S. economy will add 19 million jobs over the next decade if Congress passes Mr. Biden’s plan and about 16.3 million jobs if Congress doesn’t pass it.

“So that is what the impact would be of the American Jobs Plan — 2.7 million, to be totally clear,” Ms. Psaki said. “It is important to be clear and to be specific about jobs numbers — to provide clarity to the American people.”

Frankly, considering the cost of the proposed infrastructure bill, I’d prefer the 16.3 million jobs.

The article concludes:

Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had both cited the study over the weekend to say the plan would create 19 million jobs.

The White House later indicated that Mr. Deese misspoke.

Mr. Buttigieg clarified on CNN Monday that the Moody’s study projects an additional 2.7 million jobs in its forecast if the plan is passed.  

I wonder how many Americans missed the ‘clarification’ and are still believing the original number given.

Actions Have Consequences

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Yesterday The Washington Examiner posted an article warning of the consequences of passing the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill.

The article reports:

We are often told to “follow the science.” This is true of wearing masks, how we teach children to read, and addressing the perils of climate change. So we should probably better do the same with the economy, no?

Consider the new Congressional Budget Office report on that very thing, the budget, the economy, and how we tax it. Let’s assume that we want the Federal government to spend lots more money on infrastructure. I don’t, because I’m certain that the money will be sprayed up the wall like the last few trillions were.

Still, the CBO report is useful in laying down the basic science of taxation. Whatever we tax, we’ll get less of. Tax corporations and there will be less corporate activity. Tax the income from capital investment and there will be less investment. Tax labor incomes and fewer will work so hard to make that money. Put simply, if people get less from doing something, they’ll do less of it. Toddlers grasp this: they will do more for two pieces of candy and less for one. In the jargon these are known as “deadweights.” That is to say, things that do not happen, economic activity that is wiped out by taxation.

Yes, it’s true that we can buy lovely things with the money that has been taxed, or at least we might. But it is still true that the act of taxing itself reduces economic activity. Worthwhile tax and spend is defined as that which is even more lovely in its results than what we’ve lost by financing it.

The Democrats seem to be unaware of the Laffer Curve. That is the principle that says that after people who produce wealth are taxed to a certain point, they will stop producing wealth. We will reach a point where the only way to pay for our bloated government is to devalue our currency. That is happening to some extent right now. The result of that will be hyper-inflation and a total collapse of our economy. That is the end result of unbridled tax and spend programs.

Where Is The Infrastructure Spending?

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Yesterday The Epoch Times posted an article about the infrastructure bill that is currently working its way through Congress.

Here are some highlights from their overview:

$621 billion in transportation infrastructure and resilience. 

    • $115 billion to modernize bridges, highways, roads, and main streets most in need of repair. This includes funding to improve air quality, limit greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce congestion. 
    • $20 billion to improve road safety. 
    • $85 billion to modernize existing transit systems. 
    • $80 billion to address Amtrak’s repair backlog.
    • $174 billion investment in the electric vehicle market.
    • $25 billion for airports. 
    • $17 billion in inland waterways, coastal ports, land ports of entry, and ferries. 
    • $20 billion for a new program that will reconnect neighborhoods cut off by historic investments and ensure new projects “increase opportunity, advance racial equity and environmental justice, and promote affordable access.” 
    • $25 billion for a dedicated fund to support ambitious projects that have tangible benefits to the regional or national economy but are too large or complex for existing funding programs.
    • $50 billion in dedicated investments to improve infrastructure resilience.
    • Building a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle chargers by 2030.
    • Electrify at least 20 percent of the yellow school bus fleet through a new Clean Buses for Kids program.

$180 billion investment in R&D and the technologies of the future:

    • Includes $35 billion in the full range of solutions needed to achieve technology breakthroughs that address the climate crisis and position America as the global leader in clean energy technology and clean energy jobs. This includes launching ARPA-C to develop new methods for reducing emissions and building climate resilience, as well as expanding across-the-board funding for climate research.
    • $15 billion in demonstration projects for climate R&D priorities, including utility-scale energy storage, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, advanced nuclear, rare earth element separations, floating offshore wind, biofuel/bioproducts, quantum computing, and electric vehicles.
    • 15 billion in creating up to 200 centers of excellence that serve as research incubators at Historically black colleges and universities and other minority serving institutions to provide graduate fellowships and other opportunities for underserved populations, including through pre-college programs.

$300 billion to strengthen manufacturing supply chains for critical goods

    • $50 billion to create a new office at the Department of Commerce dedicated to monitoring domestic industrial capacity and funding investments to support production of critical goods.
    • $50 billion in semiconductor manufacturing and research, as called for in the bipartisan CHIPS Act.
    • $30 billion over 4 years to create U.S. jobs and prevent the severe job losses caused by pandemics through major new investments in medical countermeasures manufacturing; research and development; and related biopreparedness and biosecurity.
    •  $46 billion investment to jumpstart clean energy manufacturing through federal procurement.
    • $52 billion in domestic manufacturers.

…$100 billion in proven workforce development programs targeted at underserved groups and getting students on paths to careers before they graduate from high school.

    • $5 billion over eight years in support of evidence-based community violence prevention programs. Biden is calling on Congress to invest in job training for formerly incarcerated individuals and justice-involved youth and in improving public safety.
    • $48 billion in American workforce development infrastructure and worker protection. This includes registered apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships, creating one to two million new registered apprenticeships slots, and strengthening the pipeline for more women and people of color to access these opportunities through successful pre-apprenticeship programs such as the Women in Apprenticeships in Non-Traditional Occupations.

Please follow the link above for more liberal dreams. Just a note–the bill would not have to ‘invest’ $52 billion in domestic manufacturers if it didn’t plan to increase the corporate tax rate.

Another Misnamed Bill

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Yesterday Ed Morrissey posted an article at Hot Air about the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill. Just as the Covid Relief Bill was not about Covid relief, the infrastructure bill is not about infrastructure.

The article quotes The Wall Street Journals description of the bill:

Most Americans think of infrastructure as roads, highways, bridges and other traditional public works. That’s why it polls well, and every President has supported more of it.

Yet this accounts for a mere $115 billion of Mr. Biden’s proposal. There’s another $25 billion for airports and $17 billion for ports and waterways that also fill a public purpose. The rest of the $620 billion earmarked for “transportation” are subsidies for green energy and payouts to unions for the jobs his climate regulation will kill. This is really a plan to build government back bigger than it has ever been.

The magnitude of spending is something to behold. There’s $85 billion for mass transit plus $80 billion for Amtrak, which is on top of the $70 billion that Congress appropriated for mass transit in three Covid spending bills. The money is essentially a bailout for unions, whose generous pay and benefits have captured funds meant for subway and rail repairs. …

Note the political irony of all this. Mr. Biden says “public investment” has fallen as a share of the economy since the 1960s, and he has a point. But the main reason is that government spending on social welfare, entitlements and public unions have squeezed out public works. Now he’s redefining social welfare as public works to drive more social-welfare spending, which will further crowd out money for public works and government R&D to compete against China.

Essentially the bill is a place to park all of the legislation the Democrats want passed, but know won’t pass if correctly named.

The article concludes:

That’s not an accident. That’s by design. Rather than stick to real infrastructure needs, Biden wants to use this bait-and-switch to aggrandize power within the Beltway and make everyone more dependent on grants from lawmakers. It is precisely on the same curve as Biden’s entire political career, including his record on honesty and transparency.

Never read the titles of bills–they never tell the truth!