President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan is no joke.
The huge — more than $2 trillion — proposal he will unveil Wednesday covers an expansive and vital policy area that became a Washington punch line in the Trump administration and resulted in painful dashed hopes for previous presidents. For Biden, infrastructure is about far more than fixing America’s creaking and crumbling roads and bridges, airports and railroads that are often compared unfavorably to gleaming 21st century projects in developing countries like China. The program is the latest massively ambitious sign that he senses that fate, political circumstance and shifts in public opinion offer him a sudden but fleeting opening to accomplish his long-term political aim of improving the lives of American workers. While Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid relief plan, the infrastructure effort and a coming jobs bill ostensibly address targeted policy areas, they have a broader common purpose. They form the foundation of the President’s effort to engineer a generational reorganization of the US economy itself. The Covid rescue plan for instance that cleared Congress this month was hailed by progressives like Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and independent analysts as the most significant effort to lift millions of Americans out of poverty in decades. Biden’s vision now is not just for new highways, broadband and ports. He sees revived labor unions, equally shared GDP growth, easier access to health care, equal pay for women, clean energy and better child care for workers. “My economic plan is all about jobs, dignity, respect, and community. Together, we can, and we will, rebuild our economy,” Biden said in his Democratic National Convention speech in August, which explained his core philosophy. The ambition of the infrastructure and jobs plans leave no doubt about his desire for transformation in an economy that has further enriched the most wealthy in the last 40 years but left the working class as roadkill. The first includes investments in manufacturing, research and development, climate and transport infrastructure. The second targets child care, paid family leave, health care and education — crucial considerations for US workers, a senior White House official told CNN. Even the venue of Biden’s speech on Thursday — Pittsburgh — sends a message. The Steel City, the place where Biden launched his 2020 bid for the White House, is exactly the kind of gritty, blue collar labor union fiefdom where the President feels at home. But it is also an example of a city already on the road to accomplishing what the infrastructure plan seeks to do for the rest of America. It has evolved from a post-industrial apocalypse to a hub of modern industries, medical tech firms, world leading education institutions and innovation that is now a showcase for economic regeneration. The President also has a sentimental attachment to the city. “It’s home,” the native born Pennsylvanian told a reporter after jogging through the city’s Labor Day parade in 2015 in one of his first public appearances after the death of his beloved son Beau from cancer.
