direction, a solid underlying growth. you also raise the issue of inequality and the fact that you can slate gdp and stockmarkets all day. you have to make sure that these benefits are reaching folks in the bottom half of the income scale. that s where some of the measures like income tax credit come in. that is a historic accomplishment. one that you have to keep going they are building on the successes so far. does the top line matter as much as some of those policies? the $3.5 trillion numbers are a lot for some democrats, particularly in the senate and a few in the house, they don t want to necessarily deficit spend and they don t want to raise three trillion in taxes.
half trillion dollars. we have indications inflation is spiking. i think it s a concern. included in the package universal pre-k child care affordable college. paid family leave. expanded medicare, nutrition assistance, housing investments and climate and clean energy initiatives. the pay fors include raising corporate and international taxes and taxing the rich. republicans are already sounding the alarm. minority leader mitch mcconnell telling fox with inflation raging at the highest level in 40 years the democratic plan is wildly out of proportion with the need right now. they are either going to have to raise taxes enormously or add dangerously to the debt of the country. it s unthinkable amount of money. the current inflation numbers are nothing compared to what s going to happen if you start put this much money into the economy. federal reserve chair jerome powell didn t directly answer whether the total new spending would impact the fed s decision making. you would wan
there s a book about that. joe, this is like a really complicated issue. the real question to me is, how bad does joe biden want this deal? because, you know, here s the basic crux of this. do joe manchin and kir stin sinema represent the democratic caucus writ large. and the answer to that is generally no. and they re the people in the room leading these negotiations. so they are not going to raise anymore taxes. joe biden has made it political clear that raising taxes is not only a political upside on wealthies and corporations, but he believes it s good policy. and he believes that s what they should do to pay for this package. so there is no middle ground between no raising taxes and a large infrastructure bill, unless you re going to deficit
someone who is on the left arguing with a conservative about the merits of a tax cut when those principles aren t animating the policy. it s just big money. if there were in january of 2009, after the crash, when america s economy had collapsed, most economists would say okay, that makes sense. deficit spend, tax cuts, stimulate the economy, but as donald trump tells us in the tweet, the stock market s at a record high. check. homeownership at a record high. check. unemployment is almost at full employment. check. the past two, three years have been pretty good for this economy. i can t think of a single economist who says now is the time to add to the national debt. the economy is doing well. politically watching this,