Biden and Buttigieg Overstate Jobs Impact from Infrastructure Bill

President Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg overstated the impact of the bipartisan, Senate-approved infrastructure bill on job creation, likely citing instead an economic forecast that includes the much larger and partisan “human infrastructure” bill.

An economic analysis by Moody’s Analytics found the bipartisan bill “supports only a modestly stronger economy.” The infrastructure bill alone would, at its peak in the middle of the decade, temporarily increase the number of jobs in the U.S. by 650,000, the analysis said. But it would take a few years for those jobs to emerge, and by 2031, after most of the infrastructure projects are finished, the bill would result in just 100,000 more jobs than if the bill did not pass, according to the analysis.

Biden and Buttigieg this week both included the employment gains from a much larger partisan reconciliation bill to overstate the projected jobs impact of the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Two days before the $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed the Senate, Buttigieg on “Fox News Sunday” called the bill “historic legislation that’s going to get us better roads and bridges, better ports and airports, a better future for our economy and creating millions of jobs.”