Biden Administration Falsely Claims $2T Infrastructure Plan Will Create 19 Million Jobs

Top officials in President Joe Biden’s administration on Sunday made false claims about the president’s roughly $2 trillion infrastructure proposal the White House called the American Jobs Plan.

A key figure about the number of jobs that will be created was inaccurate. When Biden mentioned the same figure on Friday, what he said was accurate in a literal sense, but misleading because of a key pointed that was omitted.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg while appearing on ABC News promoted Biden’s $2 trillion American Jobs Plan and claimed it would create 19 million jobs in the country.

“And independent analysis by economists earlier -- last week -- said that this will lead to 19 million jobs,” Buttigieg said on Sunday. “And one of the most interesting things is that a lot of the research is also saying that the majority of those jobs will not require a college degree.”

The transportation secretary repeated the same language when he was interviewed on NBC News.

“The American Jobs Plan is about a generational investment. It's going to create 19 million jobs,” he said. “And we're talking about economic growth that's going to go on for years and years. So yeah, the Rescue Plan was largely about just getting through this season, getting America back from the brink.”

White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese promoted a similar number during his appearance on Fox News on Sunday, saying Moody’s Analytics estimated the American Jobs Plan “would create 19 million jobs.”

“This is a good faith effort. We think that investing about $2 trillion over this period would make a huge difference. You look at just the analysis we’ve seen this week. Moody’s suggests it’ll create 19 million jobs,” Deese said.

Two officials in the White House and the Department of Transportation told CNN that both Deese and Buttigieg were not correct. Moody’s Analytics did not estimate that Biden’s infrastructure proposal would “create” 19 million jobs.

Rather, the financial services company estimated that the U.S. economy would see an additional 19 million jobs between the fourth quarter of 2020 and the fourth quarter of 2030 if the American Jobs Plan passes. Yet the package itself adds 2.7 million jobs.

President Biden on Friday mentioned “19 million” in his speech. But he did not say the infrastructure proposal itself would create 19 million jobs, and also failed to make clear that the estimate believes the economy would add 16.3 million jobs regardless of whether Congress passes the $2 trillion bill.

“Independent analysis shows that if we pass this plan, the economy will create 19 million jobs — good jobs, blue-collar jobs, jobs that pay well,” the president said. “That’s long-term jobs for pipefitters, healthcare workers, those who work in the steel factories and the cutting-edge labs as well.”