On Tuesday, many Senate Republicans seemingly conceded to the Democrats by helping them pass a deceptively titled infrastructure bill. H.R. 3684 provides minimal funding for actual infrastructure- roads, bridges, and highways, and instead is heavily weighted with a full range of unrelated- environmental and other subsidies and polices that were slipped into the bill by Joe Biden and Democrat lawmakers. The bill passed on Monday by a margin of 69-30, with 19 Republican senators voting with the Democrats. The bill is more than double the length of the Bible and includes the leftist fantasies of higher taxes, increased regulation, and more.
Firstly, H.R. 3684 continues Biden’s assault on biology by defining “gender identity” as a protected class. To quote the legislation, “No individual in the United States may, on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, or disability, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity that is funded in whole or in part with funds 16 made available to carry out this title.” According to a recent Gallup poll, the majority of Americans believe that “changing one’s gender” is “morally wrong.” Despite this, Democrats have decided to force this concept upon America and legally label anyone that questions the concept as “discriminatory.”
Next, H.R. 3684 would require that auto manufacturers place “advanced alcohol monitoring systems” in all new cars within three years. According to the mandate, the system would need to “passively and accurately detect whether the blood alcohol concentration of a driver of a motor vehicle is equal to or greater than the blood alcohol concentration of 0.08%.” If the system detects that a driver exceeds the legal alcohol limit, it must “prevent or limit motor vehicle operation.” Like all dystopian monitoring systems, this system would supposedly exist to benefit society. However, there is no way to enforce this regulation without further surveillance, such as cameras or even more sensors. This is due to the fact that the vehicle does not know who blows into the breathalyzer, meaning a non-impaired individual could blow into the device before an impaired driver enters and drives the vehicle. This policy is an alarming first step for the federal government to monitor Americans within their vehicles.
In another form of increased surveillance of American drivers, the bill would create a pilot program to tax drivers per mile that they drive. H.R. 3684 directs Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to “Establish, on an annual basis, per-mile user fees for passenger motor vehicles, light trucks, and medium- and heavy-duty trucks, which amount may vary between vehicle types and weight classes to reflect estimated impacts on infrastructure, safety, congestion, the environment, or other related social impacts” within 90 days. This tax would only further complicate America’s already convoluted tax system. A per-mile tax is a tax to drive on the roads that American tax dollars have already paid for, in addition to the tax that Americans pay for gasoline to power their vehicles. Notably, a new federal per-mile tax goes against Biden’s pledge to not raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 annually.
Lastly, H.R. 3684 threatens to outsource those in the cryptocurrency industry. As a result of H.R. 3684, cryptocurrency brokers will be required to pay at least $28 billion in new taxes over the next 10 years. While further taxes on cryptocurrency will likely be necessary in the near future, cryptocurrency has nothing to do with infrastructure, and there is no reason for such a provision to be included in an infrastructure bill. It is irrational to see so many non-infrastructure-related policies placed into a supposed infrastructure bill.
One would think that an infrastructure bill with a price tag of over $1 trillion would create subsequent economic growth, but according to a recent analysis, H.R. 3684 creates “no significant impact” on economic growth. In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office, H.R. 3684 will add $256 billion to the deficit over the next ten years. This means that, despite what Democrats continue to falsely claim, the bill does not pay for itself.
In addition to H.R. 3684, The Senate approved a resolution for a massive $3.5 trillion budget among party lines by a margin of 50-49 on Wednesday. The package provides over $100 billion to make community colleges tuition-free, expands Obamacare, and provides a rapid path to citizenship to nearly 1 million non-citizens. The package now sits in the House of Representatives, where it is expected to be voted on in the Fall after Congress returns from their August recess, and House Democrats presumably further pack the bill with even more radical proposals.
While Senate Republicans surrender to the left, former President Trump is speaking out about this insanity. To quote Trump, “This is a 2,700 page bill that no one could have possibly read—they would have needed to take speed reading courses. It is a gift to the Democrat Party, compliments of Mitch McConnell and some RINOs, who have no idea what they are doing. There is very little on infrastructure in all of those pages. Instead, they track your driving so they can tax you. It is Joe Biden’s form of a gas tax but far bigger, far higher and, mark my words, far worse.”
Americans overwhelmingly agree that America’s infrastructure needs extensive repair. However, the bill is nowhere near sufficient at solving America’s infrastructure crisis. According to estimates, approximately $4.6 trillion is needed over the next ten years to fix America’s critical infrastructure, with an additional $5 trillion being required to fix America’s electrical grid. This means that the $550 billion allocated for infrastructure projects in H.R. 3684 is only enough to fund less than 6% of America’s necessary repairs. This is akin to putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.
The so-called infrastructure bill is a deceitfully labeled scam. H.R. 3684 includes a small and insufficient amount of funding for infrastructure and instead includes many radical policies that are hidden in over 2,700 pages. The 19 Senate Republicans that aided in the passage of the disastrous bill should be ashamed of themselves as they are complicit in the deception of the American people and their conservative constituents that elected them.