Biden unveils 'once in a generation' spending plan
Washington DC: President Joe Biden has unveiled a whopping USD 2 trillion investment proposal to upgrade America's crumbling infrastructure, address the challenge posed by climate change and boost the US' global competitive edge against China.
Touting his ambitious plan as a "once-in-a-generation" investment to rebuild the backbone of America, Biden said it would lead to transformational progress that will generate good-paying jobs and economic growth.
"The rest of the world is closing in and closing in fast. We can't allow this to continue. American Jobs Plan is the biggest increase in our federal non-defence research and development spending on record," Biden said in his address to the nation from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
"It's going to create the strongest, most resilient, innovative economy in the world, Biden said.
The plan is aimed to put the US in a position to out-compete China, which he said, along with other countries, "are eating our lunch." He said failing to make these investments will add "to our debt and effectively puts our children at a disadvantage relative to our competitors. That's what crumbling infrastructure does. And our infrastructure is crumbling. We're ranked 13th in the world," the president pointed out.
"Our adversaries are worried about us building this critical infrastructure, he said, noting that the decline in America's gross domestic product means the rest of the world is closing in, and closing in fast."
"What I'm proposing is a one-time capital investment of roughly USD 2 trillion in America's future, spread largely over eight years," he said.
The American Jobs Plan, he said will lead to a transformational progress in our effort to tackle climate change with American jobs and American ingenuity. It will protect the community from billions of dollars of damage from historic super storms, floods, wildfires, droughts, year after year, by making America's infrastructure more secure and resilient and seizing incredible opportunities for American workers and American farmers in a clean energy future.
Biden said it will generate historic job growth, historic economic growth, help businesses to compete internationally, create more revenue as well.
In fact, it's the largest American jobs investment since World War Two. It will create millions of jobs, good-paying jobs. It will grow the economy, make us more competitive around the world, promote our national security interests, and put us in a position to win the global competition with China in the upcoming years. Biden's ambitious plan envisions, over a span of eight years, repairing 32,000 kilometres of roadways, 10 economically significant bridges and 10,000 smaller ones and upgrading the country's power grid and transit systems.
