A Labor Day Weekend NIB Zoom Town Hall on August 30, 2023, was headlined by Washington State Senator Robert Hasegawa, New Mexico State Senator William Tallman and Pennsylvania Representative Darisha Parker entitled, "A 'Hamiltonian' National Infrastructure Bank Will Defeat Budget Cuts, High Interest Rates and Banking Crises."

This Labor Day event comes at the end of a “summer of discontent,” but also hope. Climate-related and other calamities underscored the need for an aggressive solution like the $5 trillion National Infrastructure Bank. The horrible fires in Maui were in part the result of Hawaii’s lack of infrastructure investment. Hawaii ranks near the bottom in all infrastructure categories, and has a D+ rating from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Bridge collapses in Pennsylvania and Montana also symbolize the decaying system, as one in three bridges in the country are in urgent need of repair. The power grid is overwhelmed by climate concerns, due to decades of failure to upgrade the grid and build new sources of power generation.

Housing is getting more and more unaffordable and money from all government sources is simply way too small. 

Starting in September, Congress will debate idiotic legislation to cut the budget even more. Infrastructure is on the chopping block. Committee chairs are advocating billions of dollars of budget cuts to everything from rail to lead-service line replacement, which will only increase the budget deficit and impose suffering on millions of Americans. 

Add to this, is the effort of the Federal Reserve to continue interest rate hikes. In addition, the commercial banking system is in full retrenchment, as recent rating downgrades have soured their appetite for new lending. These factors will contribute to a looming slowdown in the economy which is the last thing we need. 

Help is on the way! The campaign to create the $5 trillion National Infrastructure Bank (NIB), modelled on Alexander Hamilton’s First Bank of the United States, is making real headway. The new bank is embodied in H.R.4052, the National Infrastructure Bank Act. This entity will be able to finance a full build-out of infrastructure repairs and new projects. The NIB will complement the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which is rolling out projects that are good and necessary. However, that law will expire in a little over three years with no “Plan B” in the works.

A groundswell of support for the NIB is building from elected officials, policy makers, and institutions, who recognize that the NIB can unite the country and counteract any attempt to bring on a recession. 

At the end of the famous Broadway hit musical “Hamilton,” the play’s namesake calls upon his colleagues, and implicitly the audience, to “Rise to the occasion; Take your shot; Build a movement” for positive change. We must all heed that challenge: Help us bring the NIB into existence!! 

Speakers:

Alphecca Muttardy, former Senior Economist, International Monetary Fund, Fairfax, VA

Representative Darisha Parker, Philadelphia, PA

Senator Robert Hasegawa, Tukwila WA

Senator Bill Tallman, Albuquerque, NM

Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon, Brooklyn, NY

Representative Pat Boy, Michigan City, IN

Alderman Gilbert Villegas, Chicago, IL 

Dr. Andrew Winnick, Professor Emeritus of Macro-Economic and Monetary Theory, Cal State University, Los Angeles, CA

Craig Swartz, Chair, Ohio Democratic Party Rural Caucus, Upper Sandusky, OH

Moderator: Julie Olsen, MBA, Chair Alaska Democratic Party Progressive Caucus, Anchorage, AK