Ocasio-Cortez on Biden infrastructure plan: ‘Not nearly enough’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is critiquing President Biden’s proposed infrastructure plan, a more than $2 trillion proposal that the progressive firebrand says does not go far enough in addressing America’s needs.

“This is not nearly enough. The important context here is that it’s $2.25T spread out over 10 years,” Ocasio-Cortez said on Tuesday. “For context, the COVID package was $1.9T for this year *alone,* with some provisions lasting 2 years.” 

The Democrat added that Biden’s infrastructure package “needs to be way bigger.” 

The infrastructure plan, branded by the administration as the “American Jobs Plan,” would allocate additional funding for roads, bridges, broadband internet and other utilities across the country. 

The White House plans to fund the measure by raising the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from the current level of 21 percent, as well as creating a global tax on corporate earnings, The Hill previously reported.

Progressive groups have argued at least $1 trillion of the package should address climate change and other environmental issues.

“It is clear that if Biden is serious about transforming our economy and building back better, a much greater scale of investment is needed,” the left-leaning Sunrise Movement said this week.

Congress earlier this year passed a coronavirus relief bill that nearly topped $2 trillion and sent direct payments to most Americans, and beefed up funding for businesses hurt by the pandemic.

Ocasio-Cortez has criticized Biden on several occasions during his first three months in office, specifically on student loan debt forgiveness and diversity issues relating to his Cabinet. 

“Who cares what school someone went to? Entire generations of working class kids were encouraged to go into more debt under the guise of elitism. This is wrong,” she tweeted in February after Biden declined to commit to cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt for all Americans by executive action.”Nowhere does it say we must trade-off early childhood education for student loan forgiveness. We can have both.”