A report for Wall Street clients analyzing the President’s infrastructure bill concludes that, coupled with accompanying legislation now before Congress, it would cost far more than the $2.25 trillion the administration insists is its price tag.
"The bill is about $1 trillion short in itemized funding that I would have expected to see," the author of the memo told Newsmax, shortly after White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki replied to our question about a "confidential" memo on the price of the Biden plan by calling it a "secret memo."
"It’s neither ‘secret’ nor ‘confidential,’ the author told Newsmax, gently chiding both Psaki and Newsmax for our characterizations of his analysis, explaining that it is "a proprietary research report for Wall Street institutional investors by a well-regarded research firm."
As an example of what he insists are missing costs in the Biden proposal on infrastructure, the author told Newsmax that "It's awfully nice of them to mention a 10-year extension in tax credits for renewable energy and storage. But, I have seen estimates that would be a $300 or $400 billion item. Where is it in the $2.25 trillion-dollar total that is itemized?"
The same author also pointed out that "the EV [Electric Vehicle] is mentioned [in the Biden proposal], but no funds are specifically allocated. There is no money spelled out for the 10% domestic manufacturing tax credit — something the Brookings Institute estimates at $230 billion.
"And there is no money listed for infrastructure finance, Build America Bonds, and Private Activity Bonds," the author added.
The same analyst also pointed out that the House Energy and Commerce Committee last month proposed and unveiled a $100 billion proposal to start the Non-Profit Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator — a non-profit organization that would "use the proven green bank model to fund clean energy and climate-related projects to create more than 4 million jobs in the next four years and speed up the country’s decarbonization efforts," according to the Coalition for Green Capital (CGC).
Once again, noted the author, "there is no cost on this listed in the infrastructure bill."
"It’s ‘confidential’ in the sense it is for paying clients," the author told Newsmax, "But much of it is already in the mainstream media."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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