THE WHITE HOUSE

MEMO

TO: Interested Parties FROM: Anita Dunn SUBJECT: Momentum Builds for American Jobs Plan DATE: April 3, 2021

What this plan means for America

On Wednesday, the President rolled out the American Jobs Plan in Pittsburgh, and he laid out his vision for the future of America’s economy. He talked about the critical, once-in-a-century, investments we can, and must, make to create good-paying jobs, maintain our global competitive edge, and ensure equitable growth reaches every community in America – from rural towns to the biggest cities, and everywhere in-between.

Here’s some of what the American people have been seeing this week about the Jobs Plan:

Reuters: Biden infrastructure plan could be big boost for blue-collar America “President Joe Biden’s massive infrastructure plan would create millions of jobs, undoing some of the economic damage inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic, economists said, with lower middle-income workers and minorities possibly benefiting the most.”

“CEW estimates the investment would create 8 million jobs for workers with a high school diploma or less and 4.8 million jobs for those with more than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor’s degree.”

Moody's: The Macroeconomic Consequences of the American Jobs Plan “The nation has underinvested in infrastructure for decades. This weighs more and more heavily on businesses’ competitiveness and the economy’s productivity growth and is increasing our vulnerability to climate change.”

“With close to 3 million more workers still permanently unemployed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, an infrastructure plan that provides new jobs in communities across the country would be particularly effective.”

The Daily Yonder: ‘Investing in All of America’s Places’ — Rural Nonprofit Leaders Respond to American Jobs Plan “President Biden’s proposed “American Jobs Plan” contains hundreds of billions of dollars in funding for rural infrastructure, clean energy, job creation, affordable housing, high-speed internet and more. Rural advocates are overwhelmingly positive about the proposal.”

New York Times: Biden Seeks to Use Infrastructure Plan to Address Racial Inequities “More than a half-century later, President Biden’s $2 trillion plan to rebuild aging roads, bridges, rail lines and other foundations of the economy comes with a new twist: hundreds of billions of dollars that administration officials say will help reverse long-running racial disparities in how the government builds, repairs and locates a wide range of physical infrastructure.”

Growing support

Since Wednesday, we’ve seen growing support for the American Jobs Plan from across the political spectrum – from business to labor, economists, climate leaders, and many others – in addition to support from bipartisan majorities of the American people.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said “we need a big and bold program to modernize our nation’s crumbling infrastructure and we applaud the Biden administration for making infrastructure a top priority.”

The CEO of Ford Motors said that “Ford supports the administration’s efforts to advance a broad infrastructure plan that prioritizes a more sustainable, connected and autonomous future” The head of the League of Conservation Votes said, “today is a great day for jobs, justice, and climate action.” And the leader of SEIU called the Jobs Plan, “a game-changer for tackling racial and economic inequality.”

Early polling underscores the overwhelming bipartisan support for this plan, and for how the President wants to pay for it: • A Morning Consult poll this week showed that by a 2-to-1 margin, registered voters backed a hypothetical $3 trillion infrastructure package. • A Data for Progress poll showed that by a 35% margin voters want to pay for this plan by asking for the wealthy and big corporations to pay their fair share – just like the President is calling for. • A survey by Navigator Research found by a 45% margin Americans backed action on infrastructure and overwhelmingly supported key elements of the President’s plan, including expanding broadband access, investing in clean energy, and repairing roads and bridges.

Mixed messages

In the face of massive support from the public, it’s no surprise that Republicans have struggled to articulate a reason to oppose the President’s plan. And in trying to attack the President’s proposal, Republicans have had to run away from their own record of supporting critical investments in our infrastructure. As the Daily Beast noted this morning, “now that “Infrastructure Week” has finally come—like, for real—Republicans who spent years cheering on Trump’s ersatz infrastructure plans are no longer on board.”

And while President Biden plans to more than pay for this plan by asking big corporations to pay their fair share, Republican lawmakers have been quick to come to the defense of multinational companies, even though a report this week showed that 55 of the biggest, and most profitable, companies in America paid zero dollars in federal taxes last year.

President Biden knows that’s wrong, and so do the American people, which is why a new Morning Consult poll found that wide majorities of the public support the President’s plan to pay for the American Jobs Plan.

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