Posted on 11/03/2021 2:50:14 AM PDT by Kaslin
I thought I’d dig around a bit in “H.R. 3684—Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” the not very bipartisan infrastructure bill. Everyone’s talking about how the other bill for building back better will be funded, at the perhaps current price tag of $1.75 trillion. I haven’t seen much, though, about how this $1 trillion bill will affect the deficit.
At 2,740 pages, it’s a big bill, designed to “authorize funds for Federal-aid highways, highway safety programs, and transit programs, and for other purposes.” As far as I’ve been able to tell, only a little more than $381 billion will address highways and such like. That’s the amount to be appropriated out of the Highway Trust Fund to cover the provisions in this bill. However, appropriation language is not standard throughout the bill, so I may have missed some things.
The highway portion of the Highway Trust Fund is just about bankrupt. The per-gallon federal motor fuels excise tax that everyone pays on gasoline and on-road diesel provides the bulk of the funding. It was last increased in 1993. The Congressional Budget Office projects that 2021 revenue will be $32.462 billion and that budgeted outlays will be $45.756 billion, leaving a shortfall of around $13.3 billion. I think it might actually be worse given that fewer of us are driving due to lingering COVID restrictions; the impact of almost-no international air travel, depriving America of tens of millions of tourists; issues surrounding port congestion; and much higher gas prices lessening travel.
By law, the Highway Trust Fund cannot incur a negative balance. The CBO presumes an economic recovery and projects a shortfall between now and FY 2026 of between $7 billion and $13 billion each year.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
It is racist to pay for spending……..
only a little more than $381 billion will address highways and such like.
The rest is wealth redistribution [theft] and porcine boondoggles designed to cripple this once great country and its economy.
It deserves defeat. Not sure how that will occur but it needs to be rejected.
The wealth redistribution has been rebranded as “human infrastructure” - now gibs dem da money!
Since when has either party in Congress ever worried about paying for anything?
Without fossil fuels, you can NOT make steel.
Without steel, how will they build or repair bridges???
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