Source: Biden’s infrastructure, livelihood plan could cost $4 trillion

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• President Joe Biden is set to meet with his advisers this week to discuss the nation’s infrastructure and job packages plan with a price tag between $3 trillion to $4 trillion.
• Democrats are hopeful that Republican legislators would back them in passing the infrastructure measures.
• White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the legislation will concentrate on providing jobs and “making life better for Americans.”

White House advisers were set to meet with President Joe Biden this week to brief him about infrastructure, climate, and job packages with a combined cost of around $4 trillion, sources familiar with the matter revealed.

One source said that the presidential advisers were evaluating between a $3 trillion and $4 trillion budget for the proposed measure, which includes infrastructural and climate change allocations.

The statement of another source seemed the same, saying that the advisers were holding proposals amounting to $3 trillion, focusing on infrastructural and other essential packages that would be presented to Biden. The source also noted that the price tag does not yet include other measures such as child tax credits and incentives for lower-income Americans in the most recent stimulus act.

According to the New York Times report on Monday, Biden advisers are set to suggest a $3 trillion package proposal that would be allocated on helping the economy, minimizing carbon emissions, and shortening economic imbalance.

The planned allocation was anticipated to be divided into two parts —  one focusing on infrastructure while the other would aid in domestic expenses like national childcare, universal kindergarten, and free community college tuition, per the Washington Post and CNN. One Biden official had confirmed that this breakdown could likely occur.

Per Democrats, infrastructure could be a topic where Republicans could help them in rolling it out, due to the need of rebuilding road works and airports nationwide. GOPs, though, have already expressed apprehension on the plan.

“We’re hearing the next few months might bring a so-called ‘infrastructure’ proposal that may actually be a Trojan horse for massive tax hikes and other job-killing left-wing policies,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor Monday.

Per the Times, Biden officials were planning to execute the proposal by downsizing federal expenditures by over $700 billion in 10 years, as well as increasing the top marginal income tax to up to 39.6 percent from 37 percent.

The president has vowed that he would not increase individual taxes for those earning less than an annual income of $400,000.

Ultimately, there were still unclear details such as the budget that will be disbursed and what GOP lawmakers would likely endorse.

On Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tweeted that the president would not divulge the proposal yet this week, but noted that the “focus will be on jobs and making life better for Americans.”

“He [Biden] is considering a range of options, scopes, and sizes of plans and will discuss with his policy team in days ahead, but speculation is premature,” Psaki added.

Source: Reuters