Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg claimed in an interview this week that racism was “physically built” into the American highway system.
Buttigieg’s comments came just days after President Joe Biden announced an aggressive multi-trillion dollar infrastructure plan that critics said has very little to do with improving American infrastructure.
What did Buttigieg say?
Speaking with reporter April Ryan, Buttigieg claimed that infrastructural neglect of minority neighborhoods was a “conscious choice” — not “just an act of neglect.”
“There is racism physically built into some of our highways, and that’s why the jobs plan has specifically committed to reconnect some of the communities that were divided by these dollars,” Buttigieg said.
In fact, Buttigieg said that much of America’s major highways, which were designed prior to the Civil Rights Act, were designed to racially divide cities, TheGrio reported.
“Well if you’re in Washington, I’m told that the history of that highway is one that was built at the expense of communities of color in the D.C. area. There are stories and I think Philadelphia and Pittsburgh [and] in New York, Robert Moses famously saw through the construction of a lot of highways,” Buttigieg said.
What is included in Biden’s plan?
Biden’s expensive plan, which has a price tag of $2 trillion, spends relatively few dollars on improving roads, bridges, and highways. Instead, the plan advances numerous progressive policy initiatives.
As TheBlaze reported:
According to a chart obtained by the Washington Post, which details the proposal’s spending breakdown, the administration plans to spend only $115 billion — roughly one-twentieth of the total — on highways, bridges, and roads, while spending $174 billion on electric vehicles, $213 billion on affordable and sustainable housing, $137 billion on public schools and community colleges, and $180 billion on climate-based research and development.
Other large expenditures include $111 billion for clean drinking water, $100 billion for high-speed broadband, and $100 billion for workforce development.
To generate the revenue required to fund his alleged infrastructure plan, Biden has proposed raising taxes on corporations.
Reacting to Biden’s plan, Washington Post journalist Philip Bump wrote, “What it is, really, is the Green New Deal.”