Focus On Biden's Pittsburgh Address As USD3trn Plan Breakdown Outlined

Focus today will be on President Joe Biden's address in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he will outline the breakdown of his administration's planned USD3trn infrastructure/childcare/education programme as well as some of the tax hikes that are set to fund the projects.

• The White House has just released a lengthy briefing on the plan (link).
• The main spending priorities taken directly from the plan are set to be:
  • Transform our crumbling transportation infrastructure: USD621bn, Solidify the infrastructure of out care economy by creating jobs and raising wages and benefits for essential care home workers: USD400bn, Retool and revitalize American manufacturers and small businesses: USD300bn, Build, preserve, and retrofit more than two million homes and commercial buildings to address the affordable housing crisis: USD213bn, Invest in R&D and the technologies of the future: USD180bn.
• All this would be funded by Biden's proposed American Tax Plan, which encompasses, among other measures:
• Set the Corporate Tax Rate at 28 percent, Discourage Offshoring by Strengthening the Global Minimum Tax for U.S. Multinational Corporations, End the Race to the Bottom Around the World [by encouraging minimum corporation tax rates remain high globally], Prevent U.S. Corporations from inverting or claiming tax havens as their residence, Enact A Minimum Tax on Large Corporations' Book Income.
• Given the massive nature of some of these spending commitments, there is the prospect that some of these plans do not fully come to fruition once Congress has debated and amended them.
• However, there is clearly a feeling in the White House that getting these plans through Congress ASAP is preferable, given the likelihood of the Republicans gaining control of both the House and the Senate in the 2022 mid-terms.
• This administration has shown willingness to run-over Republican opposition and push through progressive reforms. It could be the case again with this plan that Democrats do not attempt to go for a bipartisan approach but simply use their majorities in both chambers (and the VP's tie-breaking vote in the Senate) to push the plan through.