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Sorry, Joe: Fixing Roads and Bridges Doesn't Cost $2 Trillion
Townhall.com ^ | June 8, 2021 | Stephen Moore

Posted on 06/08/2021 4:14:11 AM PDT by Kaslin

The Biden White House is furiously trying to cajole congressional Republicans into signing off on his $2 trillion "infrastructure bill." So far, they've held firm in saying not just no but "hell, no" to new taxes and spending to pay for all this.

It turns out that a bill to fix our roads and bridges, modernize our water and sewer systems, and upgrade ports and airports doesn't require $1 of new spending. West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who has been negotiating with the Biden team on a public works bill, has been slyer than the foxes in the Biden administration. She points out correctly that there's enough money already appropriated by Biden that can be "reprogrammed" for real infrastructure.

If we take out the $1 trillion-plus spending in the Biden plan for fake infrastructure -- I'm speaking of the deluge of subsidies for wind, solar and electric vehicle manufacturers -- then it's easy to pay for road repairs and fixing bridges, and modernizing internet access services with about $600 billion.

Where will that money come from? Easy. Take it from the unspent slush find dollars crammed inside the bloated $1.9 trillion American Recovery Act, which passed back in March. COVID-19 is over, so the money isn't needed any longer.

I've discovered four pots of money adding to more than half a trillion dollars that should be reassigned for fixing our infrastructure.

Step No. 1: Take back $175 billion in blue-state bailout money. Most states have budget surpluses, not deficits, thanks to the stock market rally and quicker than expected recovery from COVID-19. Yet Congress gave states and cities $350 billion that they don't need. States that received big payments include: California, $42 billion; New York, $23.5 billion; Texas, more than $20 billion, and Florida, $17 billion. Half this money still hasn't been sent to the states and should be reallocated for vital infrastructure. Flush with cash, Bloomberg reports states are spending the money on NASCAR subsidies, tourism programs, sending $2,000 checks to residents, and helping lobster farmers (in Maine).

Step No. 2: Stop paying $300 a week for supplemental unemployment benefits. The Biden bill provided $300 billion for this program, but with 8.1 million job openings, we shouldn't be paying people not to work. At last count, 25 governors have said no to the money, and if Congress would cancel the program, we save $150 billion.

Step No. 3: Reassign federal education dollars allocated for schools and teacher unions in years 2022-28. The Biden bill handed out $129 billion for government schools that have been mostly shut down and would be spent through 2028! That's on top of $67.5 billion extra federal money the Trump administration allocated to schools during the pandemic. Since COVID-19 is over, let schools keep the $6 billion for this year, and the remaining $123 billion can go to infrastructure.

Step No. 4: Declare a war on Washington waste. Polls show Americans believe that about 25 to 30 cents of every dollar spent in Washington is wasted. To find the waste, Congress can simply go to the website Open the Books at https://www.openthebooks.com/, which lists tens of billions of dollars of outrageous spending. This is what any business would do. Why not Uncle Sam?

Biden has said that upgrading our infrastructure and the safety of our bridges is a top national priority. He is right. But what isn't a national priority is the $22 trillion in debt spending he wants to pay for it. If Republicans cave to the progressive agenda that Biden has laid out, they will be coconspirators in the bankrupting of America.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: joebiden
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1 posted on 06/08/2021 4:14:11 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Republicans are fiscal hawks....when they’re not in power.


2 posted on 06/08/2021 4:21:25 AM PDT by MuttTheHoople ("The issue is never the issue. The issue always is the Revolution." Lenin)
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To: Kaslin

They need fix the roads. Put those collecting the unemployment into a CCC Structure give them a pick shovel hard hat and wheelbarrow and off they go. Immediate fix up crews.


3 posted on 06/08/2021 4:21:56 AM PDT by Mouton (The enemy of the people is the media.)
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To: Kaslin

Why go to all that trouble to try to get the Uniparty to give back the mad money they’ve voted themselves. We can all put these steps in letters to Santa. That action will bear more results than expecting the DS to give the first penny back.


4 posted on 06/08/2021 4:22:15 AM PDT by hardspunned (former GOP globalist stooge)
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To: MuttTheHoople
Republicans are fiscal hawks....when they’re not in power.

Correct. They act like Republicans on most issues, so long as their votes are only for show. The "Washington Generals" analogy is perfect.

5 posted on 06/08/2021 4:23:35 AM PDT by Sirius Lee (They intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live and live like you are prepping for eternal life)
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To: Kaslin

It’s very sad/revealing that the only issue the Republican Senators are keen to fight the Biden regime for is the corporate tax cut..


6 posted on 06/08/2021 4:25:37 AM PDT by Renfrew
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To: Renfrew

Yeah, it is.


7 posted on 06/08/2021 4:28:28 AM PDT by Kaslin (Joe Biden will never be my President, and neither will Kamala Harris)
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To: Kaslin

“... and the safety of our bridges is a top national priority”

I doubt that most of our bridges are bad off enough to be a “top national priority”. In any event, I don’t personally know, and who am I to trust who makes that claim.


8 posted on 06/08/2021 4:30:57 AM PDT by cymbeline
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To: Kaslin

Biden will spend the money where he’s gets his 10% back.


9 posted on 06/08/2021 4:32:40 AM PDT by ryderann
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To: Kaslin

I don’t question whether it costs, will cost, or could cost 2 trillion dollars. It is certainly possible and even likely to cost that much, in my mind.

What I question is whether its the federal government’s job to do this, or the individual states’ jobs to do this. In my view, I shouldn’t be taxed for infrastructure that is not used by me. My tax dollars shouldn’t pay for roads in New York, for example. I never go there and any use of their infrastructure that I make is paid for by sales taxes and shipping fees of products coming from that state.


10 posted on 06/08/2021 4:36:14 AM PDT by NicoDon
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To: Kaslin
The Biden administration is playing this smart, from a political standpoint.

Most Americans don’t care about infrastructure. Sure, they’ll SAY they do, but if you told them to pay $100 in taxes and gave them the authority to allocate those taxes to whatever government-funded programs or institutions they want, the amount they’d dedicate to infrastructure would be damn near $0.

The dirty little secret about infrastructure is that people don’t want to pay for it because they don’t plan on living in the same place for a long time, and they can’t take the infrastructure with them when they move.

11 posted on 06/08/2021 4:37:38 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And once in a night I dreamed you were there; I canceled my flight from going nowhere.")
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To: Kaslin

No roads are going to get fixed, the military will get no help as long as this creature is in the White House, and that’s all the government needs to do.

The rest we can take care of but people like these dictators use their place in government to build their power. Money is a part of it, they need it, but it is power they go after and what the get is never enough.

That 2 trillion is only part of what they’re going to take. They’ve already taken 6 trillion in his first 3 months. 6 trillion to pay people to not work. At 100 million people that’s 60 k. I got 14 hundred not 60 k.

Joe Biden is cresting a disaster for us, the people who ostensibly put him into office. That alone is proof that someone other that we tge people put him into office.


12 posted on 06/08/2021 4:38:40 AM PDT by stanne
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To: Kaslin

Shelley Moore Capito needs to get louder. She needs to grab the leftist media elitists by the scruff of their necks and scream it at them. Make some real noise or she will never be heard.


13 posted on 06/08/2021 4:40:28 AM PDT by Hatteras
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To: Kaslin

Maybe Hunter Biden is running low on cash for his fun-time in China? The “Big Guy” would surely loan (give) him a billion or so to continue his fun living.


14 posted on 06/08/2021 4:41:52 AM PDT by sevinufnine
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To: cymbeline

“Biden has said that upgrading our infrastructure and the safety of our bridges is a top national...”

Biden does not have the beginning of a concern for us or our bridges nor statistics room research about them.

He cares about covering up any intel about where that money is really intended for.


15 posted on 06/08/2021 4:44:45 AM PDT by stanne
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To: Kaslin

Mr. Moore, why are you pretending BiteMe is running this 💩 show?

You don’t do your arguments any favors by ignoring the the obvious.


16 posted on 06/08/2021 4:52:01 AM PDT by mewzilla (Those aren't masks. They're muzzles. )
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To: NicoDon

“ I shouldn’t be taxed for infrastructure that is not...”

You’re not being taxed for infrastructure. You’re being taxed to fund the Bidens. You and I are now the “son of a bitch” (Biden’s words) in the video.

He sends his own drug addicted, motherless, aimless, senseless sin to work among high level, international mobsters. Why would anyone think US citizens are going o be treated better.


17 posted on 06/08/2021 4:52:11 AM PDT by stanne
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To: stanne

For my own sanity, I tend to avoid internalizing this line of rage-inducing thinking. Particularly because it’s not only self destructive, but because it isn’t a point of logic that can be used to persuade others. If you sound like a nut people are going to dismiss what you say out of hand. If you make a persuasive argument then they may be open to considering it, and since there is a significant portion of the population that sits in the middle, persuading them to my line of thinking is more constructive to me than being dismissed by them.


18 posted on 06/08/2021 5:00:05 AM PDT by NicoDon
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To: Kaslin

He and the Democrat party gotta pay their pals for cheating them to victory in November.


19 posted on 06/08/2021 5:11:28 AM PDT by Durbin
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To: NicoDon

I don’t go around arguing this point. I state it here because this is were I can exercise my logic. I have anticipated this since before the Clintons came along with their griftocracy and people adored them.

God will continue to watch over this country. The suffering will stop as 80 million voters and like minded people see these things more clearly as things get worse under this griftocracy. That’s a good thing. A better outcome than a GOPe in office. This was always going to happen. They were never going to allow trump in the White House.

I have a little house near a little major city in a red state- I got out of my native New York in the 80s when real estate skyrocketed. I have an economy-failure-proof Job. I own my car.

I guess some people get mad at others for not seeing it. I don’t. Not at all. I’m a teacher a parent and a health care worker. My expectations that people change their minds for anything but a real crisis are low.

I never think people will change their minds over what I say. Maybe what I do... St Francis said something I keep in mind. He said, “preach the Gospel always. Sometimes use words”


20 posted on 06/08/2021 5:23:40 AM PDT by stanne
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