March 23 – First the stimulus package with its tax rules hidden inside and now a massive – massive – infrastructure bill with a whole bunch of unseen additions that have very little to do with actual infrastructure.
We can all agree that infrastructure is important. Our roads (81, anyone?), bridges, airports and dams need maintenance and upkeep. In fact, infrastructure is typically a bipartisan issue, with both sides pretty much all-in.
But, (and you had to hear that one coming) when there is so much couched in a bill about infrastructure, you’ve gotta start to wonder how the heck the federal government can get away with this kind of deceit.
We’re looking at possibly trillions of dollars again in this infrastructure bill and the early reporting says that roughly half of it is earmarked for infrastructure while the other half will be all sorts of tax reform and environmental initiatives – things that have nothing to do with infrastructure.
Attorney Clint Barkdoll, Pat Ryan and Michele Jansen of the Big Talk on First News discussed the issue today.
“They’ll make this a huge, comprehensive package that will tuck in all of these campaign pledges that Biden made, but they’ll couch it in terms of infrastructure because they know that’s popular,” Barkdoll said. “Keep a very sharp eye on that when it’s rolled out because we know with so many of these massive pieces of legislation, the devil is always in the details and when you’re talking about a multi-trillion dollar package there’s going to be a lot of devils in those details.”
Ryan added, “Three trillion is what they’re talking about and when I see the words ‘much of the plan may focus on more social programs like free community college and paid national leave program’ rather than roads and bridges. How dare you do this to your kids’ and your grandkids’ and your grandkids’ grandkids’ future?”
“It’s incredibly deceiving,” Barkdoll agreed. “I’m afraid that’s how the House and Senate will vote for it. They’ll keep saying it’s infrastructure and when you get into the other issues, I think for the most part the public is very opposed to it.”
