The bill includes $110 billion in funding for roads, bridges and major projects, as well as $39 billion to modernize and make public transit more accessible to the disabled and elderly. Significant chunks of that money will go to major city transit systems, like New York City’s, based on federal funding formulas. (Taxpayers paying for something that even New Yorkers aren’t willing to pay for??)
Here is the Biden and Pelosi family and crony personal enrichment bill: www.epw.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/e/a/ea1eb2e4-56bd-45f1-a260-9d6ee951bc96/F8A7C77D69BE09151F210EB4DFE872CD.edw21a09.pdf
The deal also includes a $66 billion investment in rail maintenance, modernization and expansion, most of which will go to Amtrak. (So politcos can travel in leisure from DC to Wilmington to Philly to NYC to Boston). It would also alter Amtrak’s stated mission to focus on “the intercity passenger rail needs of the United States,” rather than turning a profit or at least breaking even, something the system hasn’t done since its creation in 1971. The system is attempting a major overhaul to provide a reliable alternative to flying and driving outside of just the Northeast Acela corridor.
The legislation will provide $11 billion in funding for highway and pedestrian safety programs (to convince people that it is unsafe to walk or run cross a freeway??). A total of $7.5 billion will go to implementing a network of electric-vehicle chargers, and another $7.5 billion will be used for zero-emission or low-emission buses and ferries (for electric cars that can barely go 300 miles on a single charge). Ports and airports will be boosted with $42 billion in new spending. (Why don’t taxpayers in California and Virginia want to pay taxes for their ports and airports??)
The group agreed to spend $50 billion to bolster the country’s infrastructure generally against climate change and cyberattacks. Another $55 billion will go toward clean drinking water, and $65 billion will go toward broadband infrastructure and development. (Again, why do I have to pay for clean water in Flint MI when I live in Virginia??) The deal invests $21 billion in removing pollution from soil and groundwater, job creation in energy communities and a focus on economic and environmental justice. The legislation will include $73 billion to update and expand the power grid.
The broadband section of the bill would establish a grant program to expand access to underserved areas, with nonprofits, public-private partnerships, private companies, utilities and local governments all eligible for project funding. It would also make a pandemic emergency benefit for internet access permanent, though it would lower the monthly subsidy for qualifying households to $30 from $50, but would include $100 for equipment. Around four million households currently use the emergency benefit, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
The spending will be paid for with a variety of revenue streams, including more than $200 billion in repurposed funds originally intended for coronavirus relief but left unused; about $50 billion will come from delaying a Trump-era rule on Medicare rebates; and $50 billion from certain states returning unused unemployment insurance supplemental funds. Senators said they expected about $30 billion will be generated from applying information-reporting requirements for cryptocurrency; nearly $60 billion will come from economic growth spurred by the spending; and $87 billion from past and future sales of wireless spectrum space. Congress’s nonpartisan scorekeeper found that the infrastructure bill would widen the federal budget deficit by $256 billion over 10 years, countering proponents’ claims that the price tag would be covered by new revenue and saving measures. (Oddly, it will costs far greater than this amount given government penchant for overspending).
At 2,700 pages, how many members of Congress read it? Did Biden actually read it? Of course not.
Let’s see if they pass the gargantuan human infrastructure bill that is laden with special interest spending that no one knows about … except for the special interest groups.
Here is Speaker Nancy Pelosi celebrating about how much her family and friends will make with this disastrous spending bill.
