The Democrats’ pending $4.7 trillion dollar Infrastructure Bill is a compound deception, not limited to $4.7 trillion, not “paid for,” not infrastructure. Democrat strategy – like Obamacare – is to speak lies with conviction, demand loyalty, concentrate power, spread fear, jam it through.
First, $4.7 trillion dollars – the $1.2 trillion “bipartisan” Senate bill and $3.5 trillion House bill, represents unthinkable spending, raising our $28.7 trillion national debt by a sixth.
Understanding how irresponsible this is tests language. This is a 45 with 11 zeros behind it – or $4,500,000,000,000. Each dollar earned by an American is then taken or assumed as debt.
Key fact: The middle class – roughly 52 percent of the country in 2018, more in 2019, less in 2021 – pays the nation’s tax bill. That is you and me. No amount of “taxing the rich” will reduce accelerating federal debt and spending. See, e.g., Which Income Class Are You?.
On the numbers, in 2021, the top one percent of earners – making $540,000 – earned 21 percent of income and paid 40 percent of taxes, while the top 10 percent (upper-middle class) earned 48 percent of income and paid 71 percent of taxes.
Incredibly, more than 107 million Americans – 60.6 percent – paid no income taxes, 59 million collecting federal welfare. See, e.g., COVID-19 Tax Relief Added to Increasing Share of Households Paying No Income Tax; Straight Talk On Welfare Statistics.
Overall, the federal government administers 80 welfare programs (not including those to which Americans contribute, such as Social Security and Medicare). Congressional Research Service reports the top 10 federal welfare programs grew by 378 percent since 1990. See, e.g., United States Senate Committee on the Budget.
Taken together, the lower and upper-middle classes pay the bulk of taxes – as they work, are most numerous, and are neither top one percent nor the bottom 60 percent. Forty percent carry-all.
No matter what Democrats say, we – the middle class – will pay for massive new spending. Making matters worse, Democrats plan to raise tax rates, pushing unemployment up, too.
At the same time, mass federal spending and debt trigger inflation since more dollars get printed without increases in labor participation, productivity, output, growth, income, or wealth. In other words, the dollars you earn will be taken at a faster rate and then devalued, even as prices rise.
Labor unions will ask for more money, which accelerates price increases and employment cuts (to pay higher costs), which reduces overall consumer spending, further slowing the economy.
What does that do? A shrinking economy shrinks the tax base – giving the lie to assumptions of a robust economy “paying for” reckless federal spending. Separately, inflation pushes the middle-class into higher tax brackets. This $4.7 trillion bill is a macroeconomic disaster.
Second, while $4.7 trillion is a mess, things get worse. As the Wall Street Journal observed, this is NOT a $4.7 trillion dollar bill. That, too, is a deception.
The real cost is far higher. Democrats are playing with language, placing traps that force higher spending. The stated price is a “phony number.”
Why? Because “Democrats are grasping for ways to finance their cradle-to-grave welfare state.” Beyond twisting “reconciliation,” the $3.5 trillion bill “hides the real cost of their plans.”
For example, the “child allowance” increase will cost $1.1 trillion over a decade but is extended only to 2025, with the expectation that dependence will force extension on the GOP.
Another trick is Medicare expansion, with limited benefits over two years, then spiking them in 2028, described as saving $500 billion, as the massive jump is delayed.
Another trap: The “universal child-care entitlement” gives $90 billion to states, but only for five years, enticing providers to raise costs yet only paying a seven percent of any family’s costs.
Elsewhere, the bill forces States to pay for “universal pre-K entitlement” costs over time. Ditto for mandatory “free” community college, which will be hard to reduce once online and will absorb students from paid educational institutions.
Other tricks, half-truths, time shifts, hidden lags, mandates, and pretend “savings” appear through the bill. See, e.g., Dems’ reconciliation bill has $6B transportation ‘slush fund’ that GOP aide warns could fund backdoor earmarks. The bill – is a lie.
Truth: This bill does not come anywhere near paying for itself. As the economy slows, costs incurred with higher obligations, mandates, taxes, and debt will multiply, with inflation and job cuts.
Notably, the Wall Street Journal confirms “the press has reported none of this,” adding, “do not expect an honest accounting from the Congressional Budget Office.” The bill is pure deception.
Third, bill contents are a disgrace, not honestly presented. One-fortieth of the bill is “traditional infrastructure,” while 39 fortieths redefine “infrastructure” as socialist largess, packaged as “must-have” federal entitlements, subsidies, and program growth.
Examples: Countless Democrat “wish list” programs, including within the $1.2 trillion bill “renewable energy,” “high speed internet,” “school and child-care” upgrades for water (traditionally state and local), “climate change resilience,” “electric vehicle” money, and vaguely defined “reconnection communities.”
The $3.5 trillion piece is worse, spending on leftist priorities, federalizing local programs, and gutting constitutional prerogatives – education and college to zoning and economic policy.
The list includes forcing “universal pre-K ,” “universal tuition-free community college,” “maternal, behavioral and racial health equity,” “pandemic preparedness” (maybe to include for elections?), “affordable housing,” “rental assistance,” “zoning” “public housing,” “clean electricity,” “weatherizing and electrifying homes,” “climate research,” money to “prevent wildfires,” “seek lawful permanent status” for immigrants, “community violence intervention initiatives,” “healthy oceans,” “low-income solar and climate-friendly” programs, “climate equity,” “green materials,” “electrification of the federal fleet,” a “Native Civilian Climate Corp” for Indian Reservations, and the list goes on.
Net-net, what does false price, false limits on spending, false payment scheme, open-ended socialist content mean? The Democrats’ “Infrastructure bill” is a massive deception.