During the Second World War, Canada’s newly appointed Minister of Munitions and Supply, the Honourable C.D. Howe, had allegedly said “What’s a million?” in response to his war spending estimates in 1945 (which totalled $1.365 billion). This was in response to opposition queries about cutting a million dollars from that budget. Howe responded that a million dollars from the War Appropriations Bill would not be a very important matter, which of course in those days represented a lot of money. Howe eventually went on in 1944 to become Minister of Reconstruction in the post-war government’s successful overhaul of the Canadian economy.
Now one has President Biden’s apparent proposal for a $6 trillion budget for the 2022 fiscal year. Wow, this is a lot of money! The budget proposal would call for the most sustained spending in more than a half-century, which forecasts deficits at more than $1 trillion for at least the next decade. As in the case of WWII funding, the President sees the proposed expenditures as necessary to turn the economy around after the pandemic is over. Most of the planned new funding would go to building up America’s infrastructure: everything from roads, bridges, public transit systems, passenger and freight rail, airports, water infrastructure, broadband infrastructure, etc., etc. Already, in addition to the American Jobs Plan, the President has put forward a $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, a massive package that would invest in education, childcare and paid family leave. To pay for all this, the President plans to increase taxes on the wealthy and to raise the current corporate tax rate.
Of course, the Republicans have raised their objections, especially to any increases in personal or corporate tax rates. A group of Senate Republicans apparently have announced a $928 billion counteroffer on infrastructure. After all, what’s a few billion dollars less? Needless-to-say, many Democrats dismissed the Republican counteroffers as being too small. Sounds familiar. Another group of Republicans reportedly has suggested using unspent funds from previous coronavirus relief plans to pay for the infrastructure bill.
As in the case of the American and Canadian extensive efforts and massive spending for their economies to fund the war and recover from WWII, it would make sense that similar efforts are required of governments to do the same in order to recover from the damages incurred as a result of the global pandemic. One way is for a massive investment in the much needed upgrading of our infrastructures, many of which have suffered from past neglect. Yes, a billion or more dollars is a lot of money, but not when you’re talking about trillions.
FROLITICKS 
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