It turns out “going big” on infrastructure is pretty popular with the American public. New polling shows Americans (of all political stripes) overwhelmingly support President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan, which will put millions to work fixing our country’s roads, rails and bridges, expanding clean energy and making our drinking water infrastructure safer for all. The plan also seeks to remedy racial inequity by ensuring access to jobs and better transit options and correcting the harms past infrastructure projects have inflicted on communities of color across the country.
A new survey by Data for Progress and Invest in America found a whopping 73 percent of all respondents favor Biden’s plan, including 67 percent of Independents and 57 percent of Republicans.
The plan represents an unprecedented investment in our infrastructure after decades of neglect by both major political parties, and not only is there broad support for the investment, there’s also a healthy level of agreement about how it should be paid for. A new Morning Consult/Politico poll found that more than three in five voters support raising corporate taxes to offset the costs.
On Wednesday the Biden administration announced its desire to do just that, detailing how a higher (but still globally competitive) corporate tax rate will raise enough revenue to invest in the job-creating infrastructure projects outlined in the plan.
The fight ahead to turn Biden’s plan into legislation and secure its passage through Congress will be tough, largely due to corporate special interest opposition, but this effort starts with some really important wind in its sails; the American people clearly want it to succeed.