By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Kansas U.S. Senator Dr. Roger Marshall is concerned about the budget priorities being shown by the new so-called infrastructure proposal President Joe Biden announced this week.
"I think they should call this the grab your wallet, raise your taxes bill," Marshall said Thursday. "It's certainly anything but infrastructure. Only six percent of this bill is going to go to typical infrastructure like roads and bridges, things that you and I think of as infrastructure."
Senator Marshall sees this as something else entirely.
"The rest of it is really a hodgepodge and a lot of it Green New Deal," Marshall said. "Their idea of infrastructure would be to put a wind turbine in everyone's backyard, a solar panel on every roof and an electric charger for cars at every street corner. I just don't think that is what America is ready for."
There are many other priorities that could come first, in Marshall's view.
"We've got plenty of challenges with our roads and bridges," Marshall said. "Frankly, high speed internet would be my next big project. Of course, there's plenty of water and sewage issues for many of our communities as they are aging out. I'm pretty disappointed."
Marshall notes that there has been progress on carbon emissions already. We're at 14 percent less than a decade ago without the kind of measures being proposed in this legislation.