The second most striking feature of Biden’s so-called infrastructure plan, after the eye-popping figure of $2 trillion (Washington isn’t interested in billions these days), is its relative lack of capital investment in actual, tangible infrastructure. The American Jobs Plan is much less about “hard” infrastructure than it is about pursuing the Democratic Party’s ideals for societal change — including the Green New Deal — and centralizing control of every aspect of public life into the hands of the federal government. And, of course, it is about rewarding the political base that brought the current administration to power. The journalists at Mother Jones said it best:
“It’s the closest we’ve come to a realization of the Green New Deal, an ambitious collection of progressive proposals to combat climate change, racial injustice, and gender inequality as much as one to upgrade asphalt.”
So this isn’t really about bridges and tunnels. What it does represent, on the other hand, is the most far-reaching, Leviathan-like attempt at central planning and control that this country has ever seen. It is better suited to places like Stalinist Russia or Maoist China, both of which were prepared to destroy entire industries, decimate their economies and impoverish their people in order to achieve a political and ideological objective. The Biden plan will continue to squeeze the life out of our previously thriving oil and gas industries, jeopardize our hard-won energy independence, distort capital and resources from their best and highest use and thereby cost more jobs that it will create.