Indian-American Congressman pushes for $10-trn re-industrialisation plan

Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna has pushed for a massive $10 trillion investment plans over a decade to re-industrialise the country

Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna has pushed for a massive USD 10 trillion investment plans over a decade to re-industrialise the country.

On the eve of President Joe Biden unveiling his economic vision, Khanna, in an interview to 'Fox News' on Tuesday, said there was need for a massive investment to re-industrialise US.

"What we're saying is, let's at least have consensus on re-industrialising America. That's productive investment," he said. "Up to USD 10 trillion over 10 years to re-industrialise America, so that we're producing batteries here, electric vehicles here, and having critical manufacturing supplies here."

"But I do think that we have to pay for it. I mean, we have to pay for most of it. A start would be to actually collect taxes from those who are evading taxes. Larry Summers has a proposal that, if we just enforced the tax on people who aren't paying tax right now, we could collect up to USD 1.2 trillion in 10 years. So, that's what I would say is the first starting point," he said.

Responding to a question, Khanna said he was completely opposed to a mileage tax or a gas tax.

"That hurts working families. That hurts people in rural America who have to commute long distances. I think it would be tone-deaf to have that kind of a tax," he said.

"What I'm talking about in terms of collecting taxes isn't just going after fraud and abuse. Right now, a lot of business income is not disclosed. If you created a new IRS form that required banks to have the disclosure of input and output in terms of accounts, you would be able to collect a lot more," he added.

Khanna supported Biden's move to raise rates on those making over USD 400,000, and raising top marginal rates on them.

"I would consider a financial transaction tax on speculation. I would rather our money be going to producing batteries. Right now, China is eating our lunch when it comes to lithium ion battery production. They get all of the cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo," he said.

"Don't we want America producing those lithium ion batteries? Don't we want to be producing the electric vehicles? Don't we want to be producing critical manufacturing supplies? We couldn't even have masks. I mean, in World War II, we armed our entire military," Khanna said.