Rockingham Times

U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-Manchester) voted in support of President Joe Biden's $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.

Critics have denounced the bill for significantly increasing the national deficit, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. It is the largest bill of its kind since President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and would cost four times as much as the infrastructure plans passed after the Great Recession, AP News reported.

RealClear Politics reports that previous massive spending bills like the American Rescue Plan, voted for by Pappas and other Democrats and signed by Biden, have already caused steep spikes in inflation. The cost of lumber has risen by 250%, oil by 188%, sugar by 50% and both copper and tin have jumped by 80%.

According to a report released by the Congressional Budget Office, if the current tax and spending laws don’t change by 2031, the U.S. National Debt will reach 107% of the gross domestic product (GDP), the highest level in U.S. history. The report also states that the current federal debt held by the public, which was 100% of the U.S. GDP at the end of the fiscal year 2020, is projected to reach 102% of the GDP by the end of 2021.

Opponents also criticize the bill for not spending enough on traditional infrastructure. Only $579 billion of the proposed $1.2 trillion in the bill would go toward infrastructure projects such as roads and bridges, The Federalist reported. The rest would be redirected toward green energy spending, like creating 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations in rural areas.

Green energy companies are not necessarily ethical companies. Democrats rejected a proposed addition to the bill that would ensure no tax dollars would go toward companies in the green energy supply chain that utilized child or slave labor.

According to a report on the dangers of inflation published by The Federalist, the U.S. money supply has increased by 40% since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. By contrast, just before the period of high inflation of the 1970s, the money supply had increased by only 13%.

Former Clinton administration Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers warned the recent economic stimulus passed by the Biden administration will likely “set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation,” according to The Federalist.

Tax hikes in the infrastructure bill amount to 1.36% of the GDP, the highest level since 1968, RealClear Politics reported.