Bloomberg is expecting more political fireworks this week as the Biden administration reveals some of the main elements of its coming infrastructure plan.
President Joe Biden is expected to describe the “scope and ambition of his plans to expand and reorient the U.S. government, setting the stage for a bitter fight on Capitol Hill that could define his presidency.”
Bloomberg said it expects the president will unveil the framework for a major infrastructure-and-jobs program Wednesday in Pittsburgh. Later this week he is expected to offer the first glimpse of his 2022 budget — which promises to redirect federal funds to areas such as climate change and health care.
The announcements will include the first concrete details of the administration plan to overhaul federal spending, in a sales pitch without the immediacy of the pandemic emergency that he had for his first package. To succeed, it will have to convince the public and lawmakers on a multi-trillion-dollar investment in infrastructure and social safety nets, along with a revamp of the tax code to help address funding needs and widening inequality, Bloomberg said.
“Successful presidents — better than me — have been successful in large part because they know how to time what they're doing,” Biden said Thursday when asked why he was pursuing the massive spending package instead of other legislative priorities, such as gun control. Infrastructure is “the place where we will be able to significantly increase American productivity, at the same time providing really good jobs.”
While Biden has made clear his plans will include tax-policy changes to help fund what aides have laid out as a roughly $3 trillion long-term program, how specific he'll be on Wednesday is uncertain. His budget plan also won't include a comprehensive breakdown about the agency-by-agency spending increases the administration is seeking.
“What the American people will hear from him this week is that part of his plan, the first step of his plan towards recovery which will include an investment in infrastructure,” said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, referring to plans for two separate proposals. “He's going to have more to say later in April about the second part of his recovery plan,” she added, which will include health care, childcare, and other social issues.
They're “not quite at the legislative strategy yet,” and “the total package” is still being worked out,” she said. “But he's going to introduce some ways to pay for that, and he's eager to hear ideas from both parties as well,” she said.
Bloomberg also says that a vehicle “miles traveled tax is no longer on the table as an option to pay for infrastructure projects.” After Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in an interview on Friday that a vehicle miles traveled tax “shows a lot of promise,” a spokesperson for the department countered his comment.
“The Secretary was having a broad conversation about a variety of ways to fund transportation,” Ben Halle, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, said. “To be clear, he never said that VMT was under consideration by the White House as part of this infrastructure plan—and it is not.”
In a political counter move by Democrats, Postmaster General DeJoy's 10-year plan for the USPS, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., on Friday introduced a bill that seeks to “ensure that the USPS maintains the 2-3 day standard delivery option,” the lawmakers said.
The move came on the same day that the Postal Service filed a notice to its regulatory board seeking to push back the delivery time for priority mail and change the classification of printed materials to competitive products. The Postal Regulatory Commission will review the changes before they are scheduled to take effect, Bloomberg said.
So, we will see. The administration's antivirus efforts and its new economic proposals are still big news items with the capacity to provide relief in the form of new jobs and economic growth — signs that are being watched closely as they appear, Washington Insider believes.