Taxes links, deficit spending avoids.

With interest rates for government borrowing still near zero percent, and the strong track record infrastructure spending has as an “investment multiplier,” financing an infrastructure package is smart and relatively risk-free, said Bilmes. Raising capital gains and income taxes would create a protracted battle on Capitol Hill that would eat up valuable time and political capital for the Biden administration.

While hiking gas and carbon taxes “should be” part of the plan’s financing equation, she said, those moves are highly unlikely since Congress hasn’t raised the federal gas tax since 1993 because of its broad unpopularity.