Sen. Gary Peters makes his case for the Biden infrastructure plan

Talking Michigan Transportation

This week, U.S. Sen. Gary Peters joins the podcast to talk about his advocacy for President Biden’s comprehensive infrastructure proposal, The American Jobs Plan. Peters is traveling the state to advocate for the administration’s plan. He was in Grand Rapids Wednesday for conversations with a number of representatives involved in various components of infrastructure, including MDOT Director Paul Ajegba, Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss, Anthony Tuttle of the West Michigan Cybersecurity Consortium, Erin Kuhn of the West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission and a member of the Michigan Infrastructure Council, and Laurel Joseph of the Grand Valley Metropolitan Council.

The senator recorded the podcast following the Grand Rapids event Wednesday. He participated in a similar event in Lansing on Thursday.

Peters discussed the ongoing negotiations and whether reconciliation was an option. Meanwhile, the president met again this week with West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito to broker a compromise and floated another $1 trillion plan on Thursday as outlined in a Wall Street Journal story (Subscription). The reporting indicated that under the president’s suggestion, the biggest companies would pay a minimum corporate tax of 15 percent, according to people briefed on the matter. Unlike Mr. Biden’s proposed corporate tax-rate increase to 28 percent or changes to taxes on U.S. companies’ foreign income, the minimum tax wouldn’t directly reverse the 2017 law.

In the roundtable conversations, Peters pointed out that we can save more money if we invest in infrastructure now than we will if we push off investments. In fact, the senator mentioned that for every dollar invested in infrastructure, you end up saving close to $7 of taxpayer money in the long run. He pointed to the Gordie Howe International Bridge as an example of investments up front that pay big dividends in the future because of the importance to the economies in Michigan and Canada.

MDOT photo: Senator Peters and MDOT Director Paul Ajegba at a round table event in Lansing.