The Limited Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Must Be Followed By A Climate Change Bill

The Limited Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Must Be Followed By A Climate Change Bill

Share to Linkedin Thursday, a group of ten Democratic and Republican Senators announced a bipartisan infrastructure bill. This is a start, but it must be followed by a major climate change bill, to be passed by reconciliation. The bipartisan bill would cost $974 billion across five years and $1. 2 across eight years and includes $579 billion in new spending. The caution about "new spending" signifies that some of what pays for the bill (i. e., the "pay-fors") will be "repurposing" money already appropriated to states and localities, that desperately need the money but have not yet jumped through all the hoops to use it. So, the scale of actual spending is much less than President Biden's $1. 7 trillion package. Another "pay-for" is increasing the tax on gasoline and indexing it to inflation. This will rankle President Biden. It is a regressive tax that hits hardest at the poor and middle class, in contrast to what Biden asked for, corporate taxes and capital gains taxes, which he promised would never hit anyone earning less than $400, 000 a year. Another pay-for consists of a provision that might raise revenue by having the IRS go after tax cheats. The bipartisan