The US president's proposal is split in two bills: the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, and the $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan. However, GOP lawmakers argue that only a miniscule part of Biden's plan goes directly to infrastructure and are offering a $568 billion package to address the issue.
Given Republican senators' opposition to the $4.1 trillion proposal, the Dems could again resort to the reconciliation procedure to pass it by a simple majority. Last month, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that it can be used for a second time this fiscal year. However, this won't work in the evenly split upper chamber if Democratic Senator Joe Manchin delivers on his promise not to support clearly partisan pieces of legislation.
Biden's Spending Plan Appears Absurd
"The $4.1 trillion sticker price is absurd on its face", says Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist Charles Ortel. "Very few national economies generate total output of $4.1 trillion in a year, so the scale of a bill that, in theory, is stimulating investment in the public sector cannot possibly be justified financially".
Ortel draws attention to the fact that the last time Joe Biden was on point for a supposed stimulus bill targeting investment in infrastructure was the Obama-Biden "shovel ready jobs" debacle in 2009.
The Obama administration's proposal, however, "delivered a miniscule number of jobs and generated massive waste, fraud, and corruption in an initiative roughly 20 percent the size of the 2021 plan", the analyst claims.
Conservative observers criticise Biden's latest grand design for being an attempt to overhaul the country's economy, increase the role of the federal government in it, step up borrowing and open the doors to inflation. Even before the passage of the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill they insisted that the US economy is not in need of rescue, referring to an economic rebound in the final months of Donald Trump's presidency.
It appears that Biden's latest grand design is aimed at lessening the role of individuals to forge their own, independent futures and, instead, to move towards a command economy, according to Ortel, who regards the Democratic Party's initiative as nothing short of a "war on capitalism".
"Moreover, the Biden Harris Administration is signalling through actions recently taken against lawyers close to Trump that government resources will be targeted against political enemies and rivals, a deeply disturbing and ominous set of developments", he suggests. "Coming at a time when technology and artificial intelligence threaten all human workers and livelihoods, the Biden-Harris plans actually court economic disaster, and, in so doing, threaten America's national security".
Could RINOs or Manchin Blink First?
Now, when the Biden infrastructure plan has apparently become bogged down in the upper chamber of the US Congress there are two possibilities that could pave the way to its passage:
· first, a group of Republicans could dissent against McConnell – as in the case of Trump's second impeachment – and vote for Biden's proposal;
· second, Joe Manchin and his fellow moderate Democrats succumb to the party's pressure and vote for the $4.1 trillion plan.
Ortel believes that Republicans who dare to buck McConnell and the conservatives "will pay heavy prices for siding with Democrats". Still, he does not rule out that "thrillseekers who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial may be seduced into supporting this mess".
"Anything is possible in the Washington, DC swamp", the Wall Street analyst says. "So far, Senators Manchin and Sinema are standing firmly opposed to ending the filibuster or claiming that 'reconciliation' is an appropriate approach for bills of this financial size and political consequence".
Still, Ortel hopes that "pressures will mount on the crowd of reckless big spenders to trim back their audacious plans" with "inflation soaring, and acknowledgement that US dollar interest rates will continue to rise".
'Reckoning is Coming in 2022'
The Dems' attempts to ram "progressive" economic plans through the US Congress may backfire upon them during the upcoming 2022 midterm elections, according to the analyst.
"In 2018 and in 2020, swing districts and states elected Democrats under theories, in most cases, that these candidates were not radical progressives, but rather conservatives economically, who were open-minded socially", he says. "Since 2018, we have learned that some Republicans and many Democrats are illiterate economically and even corrupt. So, a reckoning is coming in 2022, assuming that elections then will be fairly conducted".
While the picture will become clearer closer to November 2022, "at this moment, Biden-Harris allies are setting themselves up for the kind of rout last seen in 2010, when the Tea Party voted many RINOS [Republicans in Name Only] and Democrats out", the analyst forecasts.
"Outside academia, nonprofits, and big corporate boardrooms, Americans understand that radical changes are not likely to improve our lives, particularly when these are poorly thought through and implemented", Ortel notes. "I suspect the honeymoon is over for Biden, Harris, Pelosi, and Schumer and that Trump and Trump supporters have lots more to say and to do".
