(Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
(CNSNews.com) – During an infrastructure forum in Las Vegas, former Vice President Joe Biden said Monday that when it comes to infrastructure, it’s important to both fix old infrastructure and create green infrastructure.
“I think you do both. I think you start with fixing the broken infrastructure in a modern way. For example, every one of those bridges we are talking about we are going to spend billions more over time as these collapse and you see people losing their lives, but also we can modernize them in terms of making them energy efficient,” the former vice president said at the event hosted by the United for Infrastructure group.
“What I want to do for all of the existing highways as we repair, put in 500,000 new charging stations. When I say that to people. I think this is an infrastructure crowd. You get it, but ordinary people say, wait a minute. You go to the big city with all those scooters. They just plug in. There is a lot we can do to create good jobs that are labor jobs paying $50-$60 an hour, and at the same time increase the infrastructure while making it green,” he said.
When asked how he would pay for it, Biden said he would raise the corporate tax to 28 percent from its current rate of 21 percent.
“That raises $740 billion over 10 years. I have a $1.3 trillion infrastructure plan that breaks out in a whole bunch of ways,” the former vice president said.
“There are a number of corporations that are not paying any tax at all. There should be a minimum 15 percent. When they report earnings to Wall Street to keep their stock up, whatever that number is, they have to pay 15 percent of that no matter what exemptions they have,” he said.
“If they are paying a 21 percent corporate tax rate across the board, they don’t have to pay that, but a minimum 15 percent is another $420 billion,” Biden said. He predicted that Republican voters will back his plan after realizing that the $1.9 trillion tax cut did not help them “a hell of a lot.”
“I think we have to put in $50 billion off the bat on the gas tax coming from those additional taxes,” Biden said. “We are not going to be able to raise the gas tax. We may be able to index it down the line, but I don’t think we can raise the gas tax from what it is now.”
Biden said that President Donald Trump is not a Republican.
Jeffrey Seib, Wall Street Journal Washington Bureau Chief, said, “You mentioned Republicans and that there should be bipartisan support in doing the things you are talking about. One of the things Republicans say, and Donald Trump says—“
“Not a Republican. You can laugh. A lot of you are Republicans, and you know he is not the Republican Party. This ain’t your father’s Republican Party,” Biden said.
Meanwhile, Biden said he would cut through the red tape that has been typical in approving infrastructure projects by appointing someone whose job is to specifically streamline projects.
“I would have somebody in the White House at one job, just one – doing nothing but streamlining projects,” someone, he said, that will take into consideration the impact on the environment.
“Most of it is just bureaucratic delay,” Biden said.
