Meuser says Biden's infrastructure plan goes too far

Apr. 8—During a telephone town hall meeting on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser criticized President Joe Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure plan, explaining he would support a smaller, more-focused plan.

"This new plan for transportation infrastructure, which is very unfocused, it's a huge amount of money, over $2 trillion," said Meuser, adding $157 billion "actually goes towards what we would consider to be transportation infrastructure projects."

Biden's proposal is called the American Jobs Plan and includes roughly $2 trillion in spending over eight years.

Meuser, R-9, Dallas, said he supported plans to improve and expand high-speed broadband internet service and criticized clean energy proposals.

"It's got a lot of that Green New Deal spending in it, which is really just wishful and theoretical, as to how it would be properly applied. Not that I'm against green new energy," Meuser said.

The Biden plan includes $174 billion in electric vehicle investments, $100 billion for high-speed broadband and $100 billion for the electric grid and clean energy.

Meuser also criticized how the Biden administration is handling the increasing number of unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.

"Well, it's a very sad situation. It's beyond a crisis," Meuser said.

The telephone town hall meeting lasted more than one hour, and Meuser responded to a variety of questions from constituents. Kate Hunyady, district congressional liaison at the Internal Revenue Service, participated in the meeting to answer questions about the rollout of Economic Impact Payments and tax-related questions.

Contact the writer:

mbuffer@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2073, @cvmikebuffer