The $1.2T Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IRA, Nov. 2021) includes:

·       $110B to repair bridges and roads to improve our crumbling infrastructure

·       $42B to upgrade airports and ports

·       $116B for rail, public transport, and upgrading transportation safety

·       Strengthening supply chains

·       Placing broadband in places without

·       Creating millions of good-paying union jobs        

·       $369B for energy security and climate change measures including $60B for the power grid, the largest investment in history

·       Expand access to clean drinking water

·       The largest investment in passenger rail since Amtrak's creation

·       The largest investment in legacy pollution (the Superfund, abandoned mines)

·       The material purchased will be made in the US

·       Reverses decades of infrastructure underinvestment

 

In AZ, the IRA will include: 

·       $5B in hwy. projects

·        $880M for public transit (Valley Metro, Tucson's SunTran)

·        $500M for improvements to three ports of entry (Douglas, San Luis) to ease cross-border trade and improve border security.

·       $290M for public & private drinking water infrastructure

·       $225M for bridge replacement & repair

·       $100M for affordable high-speed internet access in rural areas, etc.

 

No Republican Senator voted for the IRA, a once-a-year reconciliation bill that avoids the filibuster.  A small GOP minority in the Senate was critical to avoid the filibuster and pass the $1T Infrastructure Act (Nov. 2021).  Despite the support of the Republican US Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable, only 19 Senate Republicans (38%) and only 13 House Republicans (6%), none from AZ, voted AYE.  Lead negotiators SENS. SINEMA (D-AZ) and Rob Portland (R-OH) were instrumental.  SEN. KELLY contributed ideas.  REP. SCHWEIKERT (R) called it “the great perversity."

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                               Inflation

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Inflation in the US was fueled by the astronomical spending increase following the Administration -engineered  pandemic and economic turnaround (9M jobs, record  a  14.9%   wage/salary increase) that suppliers, with unaddressed pre-pandemic issues (overburdened foreign supply and transportation systems), could not begin to meet, (b) the Ukraine invasion that moved gasoline and grain prices even higher, and (c) monopolistic companies choosing excessive profits over lowering prices.

 

  A longer list of Biden anti-inflation measures: 

 

·        Promoting bipartisan legislation to dramatically expand made-in-US computer chips.

·        Lowering Medicare drug prices and Affordable Care Act premiums, expanding subsidies.

·        Reducing port congestion, student debt, transportation bottlenecks.

·        Pumping oil from strategic reserves to increase gasoline supplies.

·        Promoting renewable energy, record investment in clean-energy tax credits, drought resilience funding, reduced fossil-fuel reliance .

·        Increasing fuel efficiency (electric car production, insulating homes/businesses)

·       Increasing revenues by a n ew corporate 15% minimum tax  and by  IRS enforcement against wealthy tax-cheats  as part of a massive modernization

·        Increasing fuel efficiency (electric car production, insulating homes/businesses)

                       homes/businesses)

·       Reducing supply chain obstacles. 

  

Republicans in Congress have no practical solutions to lower prices.  Imagine if they collaborated with Democrats.  Instead:

 

Republicans in Congress have no practical solutions to lower prices.  Imagine if they collaborated with Democrats.  Instead:

 

·             They blame Biden and block his anti-inflation measures or try to.

·             One senator proposed raising taxes on working families, some want to place Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block every five years, and many Republicans want to raise healthcare premiums by repealing Obamacare.

 

·             They were only able to partially blocked lowering insulin and prescription drug costs

 

·             They neglect to acknowledge the current inflation surge began in Trump's last year due to his raising Chinese tariffs, his Dec. 2020 stimulus, and botched pandemic response that appreciably worsened the declining economy.

·             They defend the obscene profits of monopolistic corporations (Big Oil, Big Meat, Big Coal, Big Pharma, Big Diapers).*  Not coincidentally, 80% of Big Oil donations go to the GOP (2020).

 

  *Big Meat - four major beef, poultry, pork companies, are collectively enjoying a pandemic-era 120% gross profit and 500% net income increases wildly beyond claimed labor shortages and increased transportation cost while  beef farmers have had no revenue rise. 

 

The bottom-line reality, regardless of who's president, is the unlikely return to pre-COVID price levels at least for most items in the consumer's basket."  This  is due to:

 

·             Ongoing supply-chain bottlenecks

·             Worker shortages

·             Climate change (e.g., droughts)

·             And other factors (Russia-Ukraine war, China's  virus shutdown) complicating global trade patterns for years to come.  

 

So it also falls on consumers to mitigate inflation, as far as is possible, by driving less, shopping at discount stores, buying cheaper meat cuts, etc. 

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