Joe Biden, his administration, and congressional Democrats are seeking to pass a radical “climate change” bill — disguised as an “infrastructure” bill — that would codify the Paris climate agreement and the Great Reset.
On March 31, 2021, the Biden White House unveiled its so-called American Jobs Plan. This plan is estimated to spend about $2.5 trillion and would raise an estimated $2.75 trillion through record tax increases. While advertised as an “infrastructure” plan, only five percent of the funds would actually go to roads and bridges, and even if one uses a generous definition of “infrastructure,” only 25 percent of the plan would fund such projects.
Where will the remaining 75 percent of the funds go? They will be used to advance a far-left environmental-Marxist agenda that would codify the Paris climate agreement and the Great Reset into U.S. federal law.
Environmentalists recognize the plan’s potential to implement their agenda. According to the left-wing Atlantic magazine:
If you want the United States to act at a national level to fight climate change, this bill is it. This is the climate bill.
“Infrastructure” Plan Provisions
First, the plan calls for “100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2035” and “net-zero emissions by 2050.” The plan’s provisions are all designed to meet these goals; to achieve this, a radical government-mandated restructuring of the American economy would occur. In other words, the Paris climate agreement would effectively become American law, and the United Nations would be in the driver’s seat of U.S. domestic policy.
Among other provisions, the plan would spend $10 billion to create a “Civilian Climate Corps,” which would implement the Biden administration’s climate projects, and $35 billion for climate change “research.” It would spend another $174 billion on electric vehicles, including to electrify all federal vehicles and at least 20 percent of school buses. Additionally, the plan would spend $700 billion on subsidies and tax credits for “green” energy, even as it ends all subsidies for the so-called fossil fuel industry — thus rigging the U.S. economy in favor of environmentalist policies.
This climate-change agenda stretches into housing. Biden’s plan would spend “$213 billion to produce, preserve, and retrofit more than two million affordable and sustainable places to live.” It would also seek to abolish local zoning rules — including “minimum lot sizes” and “prohibitions on multifamily housing” — that preserve the quality of life in communities. In other words, Biden’s plan is consistent with the Great Reset’s goal of mass urbanization and driving individuals out of rural or low-density areas, along with his “30 by 30” federal land grab.
Implementing high-density housing goes hand-in-hand with implementing mass-transit programs. Biden’s plan does just that, with $85 billion going generally to mass-transit programs and an additional $80 billion to Amtrak specifically. According to a Heritage Foundation analysis, Biden’s plan “would spend nearly 50% more on trains and buses than on roads.”
Biden’s plan also calls for enacting the pro-labor union “PRO Act,” which would unconstitutionally abolish state “right-to-work” laws and help destroy American sovereignty by aligning its labor laws with the USMCA’s dictates. The plan’s call for a global minimum corporate tax — which the Treasury Department formally proposed — would further restrict national sovereignty while also hurting the economy.
The numerous other provisions in Biden’s plan include “$400 billion for care for the elderly and the disabled,” “$300 billion for business and manufacturing,” “$100 billion for school construction,” “$100 billion for workforce development programs,” and “$25 billion for child-care facilities.” As Charles Scaliger points out in The New American magazine, not only are these provisions enormously expensive, but they have absolutely no legal basis under the U.S. Constitution. Under the 10th Amendment, all of these areas are reserved to the states.
Status in Congress
Negotiations over the specifics of an “infrastructure” spending bill are ongoing and a bill number has not yet been assigned. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has announced that he will move on the bill in July regardless of whether negotiations succeed or not.
It makes no sense for congressional Republicans to compromise on such a radical and unconstitutional “climate-change” plan. Unfortunately, the Senate GOP is already negotiating with the Biden administration; it published a $568 billion counterproposal and is expected to release a subsequent $1 trillion plan. In addition to including multiple spending provisions that, again, violate the Constitution, the GOP plan would establish a national pilot program for a draconian “vehicle-miles-traveled” tax. Meanwhile, several Republican senators are working separately with Democrats on a “bipartisan” version.
Although the Biden administration has expressed pleasure at Senate Republicans’ cooperation with its spending proposals, it and congressional Democrats plan to unilaterally pass this bill if the GOP does not cave in to enough Biden Plan provisions. Even if this draconian plan passes, it will not satisfy the Left; the Biden administration is already working on another spending proposal on top of his current “infrastructure” plan.
If Congress respects the U.S. Constitution and individual freedom, it will fully reject Biden’s plan and the socialist provisions contained therein.
To urge your U.S. representative and senators to reject Biden’s socialist and unconstitutional “infrastructure” plan, visit The John Birch Society’s legislative alert here.
