Kamala Harris Defends ‘Human Infrastructure’ in $2 Trillion Package

Vice President Kamala Harris framed the $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) as an essential package that goes beyond repairing decaying roads and bridges and toward lifting living standards and increasing workforce productivity.

Harris told the AJC on Wednesday that it would “improve, update, upgrade and create” a better quality of life for Georgians while enabling a rapid expansion of the economy.

“I call it human infrastructure, but its infrastructure,” Harris said, adding: “It’s all about the infrastructure that is required to live, those things that are necessary for us to actually function, that we take for granted often.”

“The way that we think about infrastructure is the things that we need in place to get to work, to take care of our kids, the apparatus that supports working families,” Harris said.
“In a state like Georgia, there are a whole lot of folks who cannot afford to live where they work, so they’re on those roads and bridges, sometimes for hours,” she said.

“We want to make sure that they don’t have to get on those roads and bridges and then get flat tires because they’re so dilapidated.”

The proposal has drawn criticism from Republicans and some centrist Democrats who say financing the project with 15 years of higher taxes on corporations could undercut growth. Some Republicans have criticized it for containing measures that they don’t consider to be real infrastructure, such as $400 billion for home-care service.

Harris went on to discuss people with disabilities by saying: “Let’s talk about people with disabilities. We do not talk enough about that whole population of Americans, people with disabilities who deserve to have the kind of care they need to be functional and to participate in society.”

The infrastructure plan also includes $621 billion for transportation, $300 billion for manufacturing and $180 billion for research and development as well as the $400 billion for homecare service.

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