AEM official: Infrastructure bill can be bipartisan

WAUKESHA, Wis. — Could a massive infrastructure bill be the magic potion that gets Democrats and Republicans to agree, both in Congress and around the United States? Or, will each party’s “line in the sand” for the scope and cost — and payment method — for national infrastructure needs be one more point of division?

Austin Ramirez is the CEO of Husco International. Based in Waukesha, the private company manufactures hydraulic and electro-mechanical components for equipment, from cars to trucks to farm and construction equipment. Some of its customers include John Deere, Caterpillar, Ford and General Motors.

Ramirez also is the vice-chair of the Infrastructure Vision 2050 Task Force of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, based in Milwaukee.

He recently was interviewed by Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News, a daily online political news site, to talk about President Joe Biden’s proposed American Jobs Plan, the $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan that includes infrastructure from roads and bridges, ports and rail to electric vehicles, drinking water and broadband, as well as the “care economy,” with upgrades to home healthcare and childcare.

The administration aims to fully fund the plan by revising the tax code, including setting the corporate tax rate at 28%, strengthening the global minimum tax on multinational corporations and stepping up enforcement of the tax code.

Ramirez discussed four key topics with Punchbowl News.

Sherman: The Biden administration has proposed a massive hard infrastructure, as well as kind of a non-traditional infrastructure as part of a larger package. What, to you, are the must haves, non negotiables, if they were to be table to move forward with this bipartisan package?

Ramirez: I think it’s somewhere between the posturing on both sides. Infrastructure certainly is more than roads and bridges, but infrastructure is not everything.

I think a reasonable infrastructure bill would include roads and bridges. It would include energy infrastructure and broadband and ports and waterways and drinking water and rail systems and all the sorts of things we think about when we think about our nation’s infrastructure.

Sherman: The big sticking point is how to pay for the overall package. A lot of businesses have been opposed to raising the corporate rate. Is that something you could support and tell us what impact that might have for you?

Ramirez: I think the first thing is it should be paid for. This isn’t an emergency stimulus bill. I don’t think that it should be deficit funded. I also don’t think putting it all on the back of a corporate tax increase is the right strategy.

Raising corporate taxes has all kinds of negative implications that would be a drag on growth long term, and I think infrastructure should be funded with dedicated revenue streams, different types of user fees. Personally, I’d love to see a (vehicle miles traveled tax).

I think now is a good time for a carbon tax that could fund part of an infrastructure bill and maybe some portion of it funded by a corporate tax increase, but the more dedicated funding we can create, the more sustainable these infrastructure programs are going to be long term.

Sherman: A lot of frustration out there that Republicans and Democrats can’t work together. Would your preference be for a smaller bill that would have bipartisan support?

Ramirez. Yes. Absolutely. There’s no reason for infrastructure not to be bipartisan. There are plenty of policy issues that, I think, Democrats can argue, can only get done if they jam it through on a single-party basis.

But infrastructure is something that both parties agree on, that the majority of American people agree on and I think there’s no reason for this not to be bipartisan. I think it will be a better bill, a more sustainable bill, if it’s done on a bipartisan basis.

Palmer: How do you think people like the vice president should be talking about infrastructure to get that widespread support that is going to be needed?

Ramirez: Here’s the good news — infrastructure investment is the best way to stimulate the economy, to put Americans to work, to support American equipment manufacturers and American manufacturing in general. I think most Americans realize that.

I think the best way to sell this bill is just to be reasonable, to be pragmatic, to work on a bipartisan basis to get a reasonably conceived bill through Congress and signed by the president.