President Biden's Infrastructure Plans

[lpetrich]

AOC and Ed Markey Want a Civilian Climate Corps. Here's What It Could Look Like. - In These Times - "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey just introduced a new plan to employ millions of Americans in good-paying jobs that respond to climate change. Who’s in?"

The Corps will compensate at least $15 per hour for its 1.5 million workers, provide full healthcare coverage, support transportation, housing, and childcare for workers, and offer educational grants of $25,000 per year of service. It also includes ​“explicit antiracist language” to ensure ​“environmental justice communities” benefit from of at least 50% of the projects. The bill also requires coordination with local labor unions.

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez emphasized the importance of putting marginalized communities first in all efforts to transition to a clean energy economy. ​“Those who have been left behind come first,” she stated at the conference. ​“We are going to transition to a 100% carbon-free economy that is more unionized, more just, more dignified, that guarantees more healthcare and housing, than we ever have before.”

Thus avoiding a big problem with the original New Deal, a problem that AOC herself has noted for some time.

How do we avoid the mistakes of New Deal-era programs?

While Roosevelt’s CCC enjoyed broad popularity, it had problems. Work camps were segregated and women were excluded entirely. Eleanor Roosevelt’s ​“She-She-She” camps, the equivalent program for women, were short-lived. Most of the projects ultimately benefited predominantly white, rural areas.

 

[Toni]

People furious after website they never used or even heard of stops listing recipes with beef.

I've definitely used their recipes before. No more, I guess.

NYT has a great food section with some wonderful recipes. If you read the comments, you often learn something (or I do).

 

[lpetrich]

Green New Deal For Public Housing - has maps of locations of public-housing projects. All over the US and not just in big cities.

H.R.2803 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): To address the impact of climate change on agriculture, and for other purposes. | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
by
Rep. Pingree, Chellie [D-ME-1] (Introduced 04/22/2021)

AOC mentioned that as another GND-related bill, but I can't find any further details.


I next compared
H.Res.332 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal. | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
and
H.Res.109 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal. | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
since I now have the full text for both. Here goes (copies of rendered webpages into BBEdit, starting at "RESOLUTION"):

• Line 51: white -> White, black -> Black
• Line 57: comma removed
• Line 77: "to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions" -> to achieve the greenhouse gas and toxic emissions reductions needed to stay under 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming"
• Line 79: "to create millions of good, high-wage jobs and ensure prosperity and economic security" -> "to create millions of good, high-wage unions jobs and encourage collective bargaining agreements to ensure prosperity and economic security"
• Line 133: "zero-emission vehicle" -> "zero-emission vehicle and non-motorized alternative modes of transportation"
• Line 173: "guarantees wage and benefit parity" -> "guarantees direct replacement of lost wages, health care, retirement, and other benefits"

"Non-motorized alternative modes of transportation" presumably include bicycles.

No mention of nuclear energy, and no mention of renewable-sourced synfuels or chemical feedstocks.

 

[lpetrich]

AOC’s plan for a 1.5 million-strong Civilian Climate Corps, explained | Grist

"A new bill would bring back FDR's famous New Deal program — with a few big changes."

Their “Civilian Climate Corps for Jobs and Justice Act” is imagined as a modernized version of FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps, part of the original New Deal. Starting in the depths of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the nine-year program employed 3 million men who planted billions of trees, fought forest fires, and built trails you can hike in National Parks today.

The Biden administration is already working on its own plan for the Civilian Conservation Corps, which it announced in January, tucked into a single paragraph of an executive order. Ocasio-Cortez reportedly played a role in making that happen — during Biden’s presidential campaign, she floated the idea to former Secretary of State John Kerry, now the special presidential envoy for climate, who convinced Biden to take up the idea.

There are four features that set this proposal apart from past ones.

1. Scale

In the American Jobs Plan unveiled last month, Biden asked for $10 billion to jumpstart the CCC, an amount that Mark Paul, an assistant professor of economics and the environment at the New College of Florida, says is far too low. According to his calculations, that could fund somewhere between 150,000 to 200,000 workers. In comparison, the AOC and Markey bill would employ 1.5 million people over a span of five years, increasing the program’s scope nearly 10-fold.

2. Compensation
This new CCC would be based on AmeriCorps, at least initially.

Pay is so meager that corps members are encouraged to sign up for food stamps — so it’s not an ideal way for a program to tackle unemployment.

Markey and Ocasio-Cortez are proposing that climate corps members be paid at least $15 an hour and receive health care coverage and other benefits like child care and counseling.

3. Equity

Another unique aspect of the plan: It calls for half of the climate service projects to be based in low-income communities and communities of color, which are disproportionately exposed to pollution and climate-fueled disasters, with at least 10 percent of these projects in tribal areas. Additionally, it proposes recruiting at least half of the corps members from marginalized communities.

The original CCC had segregated all-male work camps, though FDR's wife Eleanor got some "She-She-She" camps going. The original CCC was also mostly rural.

4. Local involvement

The original CCC was “really top-down,” Maher said, with those living near projects given “basically no say in what the projects were.” The AOC and Markey bill says the CCC’s activities would be “planned and implemented in a manner that incorporates local knowledge and planning wherever practicable,” working with local organizations and labor unions as partners.

 

[lpetrich]

Some snippets from that GND-reintroduction press conference.

NowThis on Twitter: "Rep. @AOC reintroduces the Green New Deal: ’The climate crisis is a crisis born of injustice and it is a crisis born of the pursuit of profit at any and all human and ecological cost.’ (link)" / Twitter

Ed Markey on Twitter: "The intersecting crises which we face demand a Green New Deal to create jobs, deliver justice, and save our planet. Thank you @AOC, the @sunrisemvmt, and all of our partners organizing in Congress, online, and in the streets for a just and livable future. (link)" / Twitter

Robert Reich on Twitter: ".@AOC: We refuse to allow an economy that goes from oil baron to solar baron.

We’re going to transition to a 100% carbon-free economy that is more unionized, more just, more dignified, and guarantees more health care and housing than we ever have before. (link)" / Twitter

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree on Twitter: " my #EarthDay from @AOC! (link)" / Twitter
With a picture of a dark-green Green New Deal cap.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "I’m glad you like it @chelliepingree! Happy Earth Day " / Twitter

That cap is offered on sale at AOC's online shop, along with a lot of other GND-related merchandise. My favorite is a set of GND posters: Green New Deal Poster Pack – Official AOC Shop

Six have been made so far: Palham Bay Park in the Bronx in NYC, Flushing Bay Corona Park in Queens in NYC, Plaza del Totem in San Juan PR, The Public Garden in Boston MA, Hart Plaza in Detroit MI, and Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles CA.

All of them are in the style of posters from the original New Deal.

This makes me think: what additional ones? St. Louis MO: Gateway Arch / San Francisco CA: Golden Gate Bridge / Philadelphia PA: Philly Arts Museum / DC: Washington Mall / Manhattan NYC: Central Park / Brooklyn NYC: Armory / Seattle WA: Space Needle / London UK: Hyde Park / Paris France: Eiffel Tower / ...

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

AOC’s plan for a 1.5 million-strong Civilian Climate Corps, explained | Grist

"A new bill would bring back FDR's famous New Deal program — with a few big changes."

There are four features that set this proposal apart from past ones.

1. Scale


2. Compensation
This new CCC would be based on AmeriCorps, at least initially.

Pay is so meager that corps members are encouraged to sign up for food stamps — so it’s not an ideal way for a program to tackle unemployment.

Markey and Ocasio-Cortez are proposing that climate corps members be paid at least $15 an hour and receive health care coverage and other benefits like child care and counseling.

3. Equity

Another unique aspect of the plan: It calls for half of the climate service projects to be based in low-income communities and communities of color, which are disproportionately exposed to pollution and climate-fueled disasters, with at least 10 percent of these projects in tribal areas. Additionally, it proposes recruiting at least half of the corps members from marginalized communities.

The original CCC had segregated all-male work camps, though FDR's wife Eleanor got some "She-She-She" camps going. The original CCC was also mostly rural.

4. Local involvement

The original CCC was “really top-down,” Maher said, with those living near projects given “basically no say in what the projects were.” The AOC and Markey bill says the CCC’s activities would be “planned and implemented in a manner that incorporates local knowledge and planning wherever practicable,” working with local organizations and labor unions as partners.

This idea doesn't sound very good at all. It sounds like a short-term plan with no exit strategy. Yes, we need to fix efficiency in the US for energy (and maybe finally getting the lead out of poor housing!), but saying we're going to create 1.5 million jobs for 5 years isn't exactly mind blowing. 5 years is not a very long time and it doesn't deal with the fact that America is losing jobs overall due to efficiency, overseas job displacement, and computers

 

[untermensche]

Saying it is not good because it is only a small good is not a rational criticism.

It is not a negative.

The US capitalist economy has clearly shown it cannot provide decent jobs and lives for tens of millions.

Anything that helps the human lives capitalism does not care about is good.

 

[Elixir]

I've definitely used their recipes before. No more, I guess.

Gee Derec - what if they list every recipe in existence? Will you starve yourself out of spite?

 

[lpetrich]

Joe Biden just dethroned the Welfare Queen - CNNPolitics
"That character is a Black woman of indeterminate age who has 12 Social Security cards, mooches on benefits from four fake dead husbands and collects welfare payments under 80 bogus names while getting food stamps."

Ronald Reagan introduced her back in 2016. She was an exaggeration of a real fraudster, Linda Taylor.

The Welfare Queen became the political equivalent of a horror movie villain. Democratic leaders didn't have a counter story that could stop it. It spread the myth that most Black and poor people were lazy cheaters looking for a handout instead of a hand up. The story was so influential that even Democratic presidents became leery of pushing Big Government solutions to help low-income people of color.

But Biden is now boldly going where no contemporary Democratic president has gone before, and he's destroying one of the GOP's most effective political attacks in the process.

Republicans have called JB a "radical" and a "socalist" and his programs a "sloppy liberal wish list."

It's what they haven't said that's revealing. They haven't successfully deployed any Welfare-Queen-like stories about people of color mooching off pandemic aid to turn a critical mass of White voters against Biden's plans. If there have been such attacks, they haven't gained traction.

"[The Republicans] don't have a coherent pushback," James Carville told the Daily Beast in a recent interview, describing three right-wing lines of attack against the President. "It's all CBS: cancel culture, the border and senility."

Even though earlier in his career, he seems like he endorsed the welfare-queen myth.

But his being an old white man may make it more difficult for Republicans to attack him.

What was once seen as Biden's vulnerability as a Democratic candidate -- his mixed record on race -- has become a presidential asset. It's easier for him to propose plans that help people of color without sparking a White backlash.

...
It's a big departure from past years, when Republican leaders kept Democrats on the defensive by deploying varying versions of the same Welfare Queen story that blended racism with contempt for the poor.

Like calling Barack Obama the "food-stamp president".

Democrats often meekly went along, like Bill Clinton pledging to "end welfare as we have come to know it".

 

[lpetrich]

Oops, Ronald Reagan introduced his welfare queen back in 1976. He was running for President that year, but lost the primary to Gerald Ford. He was earlier Governor of California, and he became President in 1980 and stayed President for two terms.

 

[Swammerdami]

This discussion of Biden's successful push to the Left is more evidence for a point I've tried to make in the past.

* It was Teddy Roosevelt, nominee of the pro-business party, that broke up the trusts and pushed to protect the environment.
* It was the Southern "racist" L.B. Johnson who signed the important Civil Rights legislation of 1964 and 1965.
* It was the aggressively anti-communist Dick Nixon who achieved detente with the communist super-powers.

Let's root for Joe Biden to join this select company.

 

[Derec]

Gee Derec - what if they list every recipe in existence? Will you starve yourself out of spite?

I guess I will only eat beef then.

Just kidding. No need for that. Doesn't matter if they are also on their woke website, I just won't be getting them from their website and giving them clicks. And nobody else should be either. Their anti-beef virtue signaling is ridiculous.

 

[lpetrich]

This discussion of Biden's successful push to the Left is more evidence for a point I've tried to make in the past.

* It was Teddy Roosevelt, nominee of the pro-business party, that broke up the trusts and pushed to protect the environment.
* It was the Southern "racist" L.B. Johnson who signed the important Civil Rights legislation of 1964 and 1965.
* It was the aggressively anti-communist Dick Nixon who achieved detente with the communist super-powers.

Let's root for Joe Biden to join this select company.

Let's see who else.

• Abraham Lincoln. He opposed slavery, but he was unwilling to fight a big war over it. But the South eventually forced his hand over it at Fort Sumter.
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was not known as a radical before he ran for President, and he was very cautious about New Deal spending. It took World War II to get him to do a lot of deficit spending.
• The US Founders. They were not a very unified group, and only some of them could be called radical, like Thomas Paine.

 

[lpetrich]

Biden infrastructure plan: Senate Republicans make counteroffer

The plan, put forward by a group led by GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, includes:

• $506 billion for roads, bridges and major infrastructure projects, including $4 billion for electric vehicles
• $98 billion for public transit
• $72 billion for water systems
• $65 billion for broadband
• $56 billion for airports
• $46 billion for passenger and freight rail systems
• $22 billion for ports and waterways
• $22 billion for water storage
• $21 billion for safety efforts
• $20 billion for infrastructure financing

Biden’s latest offer to Republicans came in at $1.7 trillion — $600 billion less than his original plan. He has urged the GOP to put at least $1 trillion into an infrastructure package.

At least the Republicans are offering something. IMO, Joe Biden conceded too much.

AOC said in a recent town hall that trying to compromise in advance with the Republicans is a bad idea, because the Republicans have a long history of bad faith - not voting for a bill even after those compromises. That's what happened during the Obama years, and we are already seeing some of that in the Biden Admin.

 

[Swammerdami]

I skimmed this thread and noticed much prattle about "compromise" with the GOP. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

The idea that the GOP is open to compromise is just another lying meme, another arrow in the quiver of hypocrites like Tucker Carlson or Mitch McConnell, so they can pander blames onto the Democrats.

With the GOP as it is, what could "compromise" possibly look like? They believe Biden criminally stole votes in 25 states. Does compromise mean they'll now say this was only 15 or 20 states? They call Biden a "Communist totalitarian." Does compromise mean he is just a socialist fascist?

This anti-American haters are so filled with bile that it sometimes shows up in their spittle, revealing their true colors; consider "AOC getting apoplectic over it would just be a cherry on top." See? "Compromise" is just a game for them: pure pretense.

 

[Elixir]

I skimmed this thread and noticed much prattle about "compromise" with the GOP. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

The idea that the GOP is open to compromise is just another lying meme, another arrow in the quiver of hypocrites like Tucker Carlson or Mitch McConnell, so they can pander blames onto the Democrats.

With the GOP as it is, what could "compromise" possibly look like? They believe Biden criminally stole votes in 25 states. Does compromise mean they'll now say this was only 15 or 20 states? They call Biden a "Communist totalitarian." Does compromise mean he is just a socialist fascist?

This anti-American haters are so filled with bile that it sometimes shows up in their spittle, revealing their true colors; consider "AOC getting apoplectic over it would just be a cherry on top." See? "Compromise" is just a game for them: pure pretense.

I agree 110%.

The Republicans in Congress (with less than a handful of exceptions in the Senate and a few tens of them in the House) are entirely, completely and utterly disingenuous about pursuing any conviction-based policy, and have resolved to lie cheat and steal as needed to keep their jobs. They will NEVER compromise with this administration because they plan to win in '22 by
a) cheating (voter suppression, gerrymandering and whatever else they think they can get away with), and
b) arguing that they saved America from the terrible things Democrats would have done had the patriotic Republicans not tied their hands.

It's time to force a vote to get rid of the filibuster in applications of voter rights, the 1/6 commission or any other matter of direct import to the preservation of democracy. If Manchin and/or Sinema are determined to leave a legacy as the one or ones who destroyed America, let them speak up now and take ownership of that criminally negligent stance.
This infrastructure squabble is just another thing the Republicans are using to waste time. I'd say take the trillion they offered and move on to preserving our democracy. If they can un-rig the '22 vote they can re-visit infrastructure in '23-24.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

AOC said in a recent town hall that trying to compromise in advance with the Republicans is a bad idea, because the Republicans have a long history of bad faith - not voting for a bill even after those compromises. That's what happened during the Obama years, and we are already seeing some of that in the Biden Admin.

I really wish they could make a bill that says:

A if it gets at least 20 opposition votes, otherwise B (which is bigger.)

 

[lpetrich]

 Cyclical theory (United States history)
discusses several theories of cycles of US political history.

I'll summarize them as a list of political regimes with Schlesinger periods in them. Each period is labeled L = liberal, C = conservative, followed by P for Huntington creedal passion and/or R for racial upheaval, as appropriate.

1. Founding: (LP) Founding, (C) Hamilton Era, (L) Jefferson Era, (C) Era of Good Feelings
2. Jackson: (LP) Jackson Era, (C) Slaveowner Dominance
3. Civil War: (LR) Civil-War Era, (C) Gilded Age I
4. Progressive: (LP) Progressive Era, (C) Roaring Twenties
5. New Deal: (L) New Deal Era, (C) Eisenhower Era, (LPR) Sixties Era
6. Gilded Age II: (C) Gilded Age II

Gilded Age II is sometimes called the Reagan Revolution (Counterrevolution?) and the Neoliberal Era.

A creedal-passion period is a time of reform of American institutions to make them closer to what Samuel Huntington called the "American Creed": "In terms of American beliefs, government is supposed to be egalitarian, participatory, open, noncoercive, and responsive to the demands of individuals and groups. Yet no government can be all these things and still remain a government."

Schlesinger liberal vs. conservative: wrongs of the many vs. rights of the few, increase vs. contain democracy, public purpose vs. private interest, human vs. property rights.

Liberal periods end from society-scale activism burnout. Conservative periods end from accumulation of unsolved social problems.

We seem on the verge of a seventh political regime and a new Schlesinger liberal period that will likely be a creedal-passion period.

 

[Swammerdami]

If, as seems likely, Biden fails to get his infrastructure plan enacted I will assign 100% of the blame to Joe Manchin^*. There is also an opportunity, via H.R. 1, DC statehood, and perhaps Scotus "packing" to resurrect America's democracy. If this fails, again I will give Manchin all the blame. Time is running out. The D's will probably lose control of Congress in 2022 (and will certainly lose it if H.R. 1 is not enacted.)

What is Manchin's confusion about anyway? He wants a "bipartisan" bill — What's that? A bill that gets 51 or 52 votes in the Senate instead of 50 votes? The humans will need to give up much to Manchin and the hypocrites to get any R support at all. A Washington Post opinion claims that any "bipartisan" plan would be a trap for the Democrats. In order to get 51 or 52 votes, the D's would need, at a minimum, to replace some taxes on corporations and multi-millionaires with regressive user fees and a gasoline tax. With Biden and the D's promising no tax hikes on middle-class Americans, the GOP-forced fees and gas tax would become a huge political win for the GOP, despite that they forced these on the D's for 1 or 2 "feel good" R votes!

( ^* - It may seem odd that I will give Manchin all the blame when (not if) he causes the Biden Presidency to fail. After all, shouldn't McConnell, Cruz and the other GOP assholes get some blame?

NO. Nobody "blamed" Rommel for the fall of Tobruk. Rommel was doing his job and he did it very well. Similarly, when I forgot to shake out my trousers and got stung by the scorpion lurking inside, I didn't blame the scorpion: It was following its nature. McConnell, Cruz, and by extension supposedly moderate Gop-monsters like Murkowski are all obedient to their creed. They WANT to inflict a toohot planet on their grandchildren for the sake of a few more caviar brunches; they WANT to help their friends MBS and Vladimir Putin; they WANT to rob from the middle class and enrich billionaires; their actions make clear that they WANT to re-elect Donald Trump. Turning the U.S.A. into a fascist hell-hole is their goal. Blaming the neo-Nazis or the Proud Bois or the GOP for the downfall of America would be like me blaming that scorpion for my getting stung.)

 

[Elixir]

If, as seems likely, Biden fails to get his infrastructure plan enacted I will assign 100% of the blame to Joe Manchin^*. There is also an opportunity, via H.R. 1, DC statehood, and perhaps Scotus "packing" to resurrect America's democracy. If this fails, again I will give Manchin all the blame.

If Biden fails to force the issue, I'll blame HIM.
I do not for one moment think that Joe Manchin would hold to a position that will doom American democracy if he is forced to choose. He has little or no chance of re-election in any event, so the thing that is at stake is his legacy. He has to know that.

Biden needs to push for the abolition of the filibuster, get Schumer to do the same, and start forcing the fascists off the playing field.

If they can't ensure voting rights, fund an infrastructure overhaul, reform the SCOTUS and re-constitute the public education system, this country is toast anyhow.