House Infrastructure Spending Bill Serves as Green ATM

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House Democrats will vote today on the INVEST in America Act (H.R. 2), a massive $1.5 trillion infrastructure spending bill. CEI experts across a spectrum of policy areas point out glaring problems with the plan, from wasteful spending on corporate welfare to an overall mindset of rejecting free market/limited government values.

Statement by Myron Ebell, Director of CEI’s Center on Energy and Environment:

“Included in H.R. 2’s hundreds of billions of dollars of wasteful spending is what amounts to a Green ATM that would use taxpayer dollars to provide full funding for every aspect of the climate industrial complex. The Green ATM would provide more handouts for wind and solar energy, which have already received handouts for decades, for purchasing electric vehicles, whose buyers are at the top end of the income scale, for example. The Green ATM even has grants for university environmental justice programs. None of this spending will do anything to speed up economic recovery.”

Statement by Wayne Crews, vice president for policy:

“America needs to create and expand ‘infrastructure wealth,’ but like all wealth creation, the root of infrastructure bounty is property rights, not transferred tax dollars and favors. Throwing money at infrastructure ‘stimulus’ while leaving 19th and 20th Century regulation and creaky ‘public utility’ models intact is not commendable. We can liberalize infrastructure and the regulation of it rather than just spend government money on it.” >View the full analysis on Forbes.com.

Statement by Iain Murray, vice president for strategy:

“H.R. 2 is a monstrous behemoth of a bill that would harm America’s surface transportation. However, it is also a likely harbinger of what lies in store in an America that rejects free markets and limited government. It is a long litany of progressive desires and demands.” > View the full analysis on cei.org.

> Related: CEI Joins Coalition Letter Urging House Republicans to Reject “Moving Forward Act” (H.R. 2)