Myth: The bill is only 10% – 30% real infrastructure.
Facts: This bill is 100% infrastructure-related spending. Unlike President Biden’s initial proposal or the Democrats’ current $4.2 trillion wish list, this bill is hard infrastructure and does not include social programs or non-traditional infrastructure. This package is $550 billion of new infrastructure spending, combined with money that will continue to be collected and dedicated to existing infrastructure projects under current law. The new spending includes:
- Roads and bridges;
- Power reliability;
- Broadband deployment;
- Electric grid, next generation energy technology development, and critical mineral supply chains;
- Drinking and Waste Water Infrastructure;
- Natural Disaster Prevention and Mitigation;
- Airport improvements;
- Public transportation;
- Coastal, inland and land ports and waterways.
—
Myth: This bill implements a mileage tax.
Facts: This bill does not implement a mileage tax. It authorizes a study to figure out a way to make sure drivers of electronic vehicles pay their fair share of upkeep on our roads and bridges, and one way to do that might be a mileage tax on electronic vehicles. The rest of us already pay taxes on our gas every time we fill up. Drivers of electronic vehicles shouldn’t get to avoid paying taxes just because they don’t use gas.
—
Myth: This bill will increase inflation.
Facts: Unlike Democrats’ reckless $4.2 trillion tax and spending spree that will pour fuel on the fires of inflation, this is an investment over multiple years on infrastructure assets that will benefit our economy for decades. Addressing real hard infrastructure needs will not fuel inflation.
Two top free-market economists even wrote that a focused infrastructure bill could help address rising consumer costs, saying, “A well-structured infrastructure bill would boost the supply side of the economy, reducing inflationary pressures. Improving roads, bridges, and ports would make it less costly for businesses to operate, allowing them to increase their output per hour, and putting downward pressure on consumer prices.”
—
Myths: There is amnesty in the bill and it contains the Green New Deal.
Facts: The bipartisan infrastructure bill contains no amnesty for illegal immigration and is not the Green New Deal.
—
Myth: This bill just makes it easier for Democrats’ to pass their $4.2 trillion liberal wish list budget bill.
Facts: Democrats initially planned to roll their reckless tax and spending spree in with infrastructure hoping that the popularity of infrastructure would cause moderates in their party to swallow the more controversial new social programs. By de-coupling real infrastructure from their budget boondoggle, moderate Democrats will now have to decide whether they can support such a bill without the cover of popular infrastructure provisions.
—
Myth: This bill contains federal funding for abortions.
Facts: There is no funding for abortion in this bill.
—
Myth: Only $550 billion of $1.2 trillion is actually infrastructure.
Facts: Only $550 billion is new infrastructure spending. The rest of the bill ($650 billion) counts spending from trust funds, like the highway trust fund, that have dedicated funding that is automatically raised, such as through the gas tax, and automatically allocated toward pre-existing programs, such as the funding the Iowa Department of Transportation gets for highways in our state. These trust funds operate on an ongoing basis and would continue with or without the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which is why it is somewhat misleading to add it into the total cost of the bill.
