April 02, 2021

Andrew Campbell 

US President Joe Biden announced on March 31 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania his economic plan, calling it the biggest public investment program to allocate US$ 2 trillion in government spending to reshape US infrastructure. It favored corporate levies for a big and bold infrastructure package in order to boost economic recovery from the COVID pandemic, improve childcare, healthcare and education, and maintain the US competitive globally.

According to President Biden’s new economic plan, US$ 621 billion will be funded to upgrade traditional infrastructures such as airports, bridges, electric vehicles, roads, ports, and public transport networks. The proposed plan included US$ 100 billion in measures to modernize the electricity grid, tax credits for clean energy generation and storage, and to seal off orphan gas and oil wells. For domestic purposes, US$ 213 billion will target energy-efficient homes and US$ 100 billion for public schools. Meanwhile, President Biden emphasized aiming at competitiveness against China, US$ 180 billion will be invested in research and development in artificial intelligence and biotechnology. An additional US$ 300 billion in government spending will be manufacturing subsidies to help microchip makers.

The new plan mainly relies on revenues to be collected on the corporate tax increase. The proposed corporate tax rate, if approved by Congress in the coming weeks, will be raised from 21% to 28%. And additional revenue will come through a 21% global minimum tax for companies earning overseas, putting an end to tax havens.

Photo : webshot.