To get a handle on the “bipartisan” infrastructure bill, let’s see how it stacks up against the other things Washington politicians pour money into. For openers, Biden’s infrastructure plan calls for an annual expenditure of $64 billion to rein in climate change. His budget for the military, largest producer of greenhouses gases in the world, is twelve times more. On a macro level, the Afghanistan war has cost U.S. taxpayers about $2.3 trillion. The UN puts the cost of stemming climate change at $300 billion. How’s that for a classic non-sequitur? Amid much hoopla, President Biden proposed a $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill. Not enough but a good start. A little Republican muscle and a bunch of squawking corporate DINOs (democrats in name only), and bipartisan Joe caved. The new bill? $1.1 trillion. But only $550 billion is new money that doesn’t have to be stolen from money already attached to other funding priorities (Medicare lost $70 billion in the shuffle). Who was supposed to fund this bill? Oh right, high income earners paying a modest tax. That idea quickly went the way of whalebone corsets and 23 skidoo. No rolling back the $5 trillion Trump tax cuts either. Instead, this wily bunch of bipartisan shapeshifters dragged out the oldest scam of all — public-private partnerships, a euphemism for stealing public assets, like express ways, bridges and toll roads and “selling” them to big corporations and financial behemoths. Whereupon corporate piggies haul in ginormous profits by jacking up the price paid by public users. A scheme that any politician looking for rich corporate donors can love. There’s lot more to be outraged about and you can find it in “Biden’s Infrastructure Follies — Much Less Than Meets the Eye.”
