美国国家公共电台 NPR 拜登公布2万亿美元基建计划 “与中国竞争”

 President Biden came into office focused solely¹ on getting the nation through the pandemic. But today, he is shifting his focus to his plans for the future with an infrastructure² pitch.

拜登总统上任后将工作重点全部放在让美国度过疫情上。但今天，他通过基础设施宣传将注意力转移到未来计划上。

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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: It's a once-in-a-generation investment in America, unlike anything we've seen or done since we built the interstate highway system and the space race decades ago. In fact, it's the largest American jobs investment since World War II.

乔·拜登总统：这是美国一代人仅有一次的投资，不同与我们数十年前修建州际公路系统和太空竞赛以来看到或做过的任何事情。事实上，这是二战以来美国最大的就业投资。

CHANG: Speaking in Pittsburgh, Biden introduced a $2 trillion proposal that would overhaul³ roads, bridges and rail, as well as water systems, the electric grid⁴ and broadband Internet. NPR White House correspondent Scott Detrow joins us now with more.

张：拜登在匹兹堡发表讲话时公布了一项2万亿美元的提案，计划对公路、桥梁、铁路、供水系统、电网和宽带互联网进行全面检修。NPR新闻驻白宫记者斯科特·德特罗将带来详细报道。

Hey, Scott.

你好，斯科特。

SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE⁵: Good afternoon.

斯科特·德特罗连线：下午好。

CHANG: Good afternoon. OK, this is an enormous spending package. I mean, it's like — what? — one of several multitrillion-dollar spending plans that we're going to be seeing Biden introduced this year. What is his argument for such a sprawling⁶ proposal?

张：下午好。这是一项庞大的支出计划。是拜登今年计划推出的数万亿美元支出计划之一。他对这项扩张提案作何说明？

DETROW: You know, it's that the country is long overdue⁷ for an infrastructure proposal like this. Presidents and lawmakers from both parties have been talking about rebuilding infrastructure for decades, and it hasn't happened on the broad scale that they all say is needed. Biden is increasingly focused on competing with China. That's just one country that has lapped the U.S. on infrastructure, you know, physical things like transit⁸ and roads, also broadband, research and development spending.

德特罗：美国早就该提出这样的基础设施建设方案。历任总统以及两党议员数十年来一直在讨论重建基础设施的问题，但计划最终都未能像他们所说的那样大规模地实施。拜登越来越关注与中国的竞争。这仅仅是一个在基础设施方面超过美国的国家，这包括交通和道路，以及宽带和研发支出。

So Biden is also tying this to two things he spends a lot of time talking about — expanding jobs, particularly union jobs and the construction and manufacturing he wants this to spur, and also speeding up the country's shift to clean energy, to green energy, and lowering greenhouse gas emissions⁹.

因此，拜登还将这与他花费大量时间谈论的两件事联系在一起——扩大就业，尤其是工会工作和他希望以此刺激的建筑业和制造业，以及加快国家向清洁能源、绿色能源和降低温室气体排放的转变。

CHANG: OK, there's a lot in this proposal. Can you just give us some of the highlights?

张：好，这份提案包括很多内容。你能介绍一下重点吗？

DETROW: Yeah, there are so many different areas that if I just started listing them, it just becomes a blur¹⁰ ticking through them, especially with the price tags.

德特罗：对，涉及很多不同领域，如果我只是罗列，那就会变得模糊不清，尤其是投入资金。

CHANG: Yeah.

张：好。

DETROW: Very broadly speaking, having warned you, the president wants to spend more than $100 billion rebuilding roads and bridges, about the same amount building out high-speed broadband so everyone in the country has high-speed Internet access. He wants to replace all lead water pipes in the country.

德特罗：我有警告过大家，宽泛来讲，总统希望花费超过1000亿美元重建道路和桥梁，1000亿美元用于建设高速宽带，以便全美所有人都能高速上网。他想更换全美所有的铅水管。

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BIDEN: American Jobs Plan will put plumbers¹¹ and pipefitters to work, replacing 100% of the nation's lead pipes and service lines.

拜登：美国就业计划将使水管工和管道安装工找到工作，负责更换全美所有铅管和用户进线。

DETROW: And that is a good example of a clear throughline here in all these proposals of addressing racial injustices¹², spending money on things that disproportionately affect or are used by people of color. A couple other things to tick through — you know, as I mentioned, embedded¹³ within this bill is one of the biggest efforts ever to address climate change. Biden wants to speed up the shift to clean energy. He also wants to lay the groundwork for a fast transition to electric vehicles. And then very quickly, he wants to pay for this by increasing corporate¹⁴ taxes to not quite the amount they were before those 2017 tax cuts, but raise them from where they are now.

德特罗：在所有解决种族不公的提案中，这是一个范例，即在对有色人种产生过大影响或被有色人种使用的东西上投资。还有几件事需要说明，正如我刚才所说，这项法案是有史以来应对气候变化的最大努力之一。拜登希望加快向清洁能源的转变。他还希望为快速向电动汽车过渡奠定基础。然后很快，他希望通过增加企业税来支付这一费用，但企业税不会提高到2017年减税前的水平，但会比现在的水平高。

CHANG: OK. Let's go back real quick to electric vehicles because that's something Biden mentioned a lot when he was running for president. I mean, that would be such a massive change. How exactly would that work?

张：好。我们再回到电动汽车这个问题，因为这是拜登竞选总统时经常提到的。该领域将发生巨大变化。具体是什么情况？

DETROW: Yeah. Just to put this in context, he wants to spend more on this proposal than on the road and bridge part of this proposal. This is something that would massively change daily life, and it's also a good example of the approach that the White House is taking in a lot of different areas in this plan. Instead of just issuing government mandates¹⁵, they're trying to speed up something that's already happening in the private sector¹⁶ and do that by three different ways.

德特罗：对。联系实际来看，相比涉及道路和桥梁的部分，他希望在这个项目上投入更多资金。这将极大地改变人们的日常生活，这也是白宫在这项计划许多不同领域所采取做法的一个范例。他们不只是发布政府指令，而是试图通过三种不同的方式加快私营部门已经发生的情况。

First of all, he wants to give tax credits and rebates¹⁷ to consumers to make them more willing to buy electric vehicles, which, right now, are more expensive. Second, he wants to shift government-owned vehicles — buses, things like that — to electric in order to grow demand and get companies to make more of the electric vehicles. And then third — this is the other important part — he wants to spend billions to get state and local governments to build the charging stations that you need so that you know you can drive your electric car and not run out of energy halfway¹⁸ through your trip.

首先，他希望给予消费者税收抵免和退税，让消费者更愿意购买电动车，而目前电动车的价格更昂贵。第二，他希望让公交车等政府车辆改为电动车，以增加需求，使企业增加电动汽车的产量。第三，这是另一个重要的部分，他希望投入数十亿美元让各州和地方政府建设充电站，这样人们就可以自由地驾驶电动汽车，而不用担心会在旅途中耗尽电量。

CHANG: Right. Well, the White House says it wants this to be bipartisan. And, Scott, I mean, infrastructure is one of those issues that both parties can theoretically agree on, at least. What's been the reaction so far from Republicans?

张：好。白宫表示，他们希望这由两党合作实现。斯科特，基础设施是两党至少在理论上可以达成一致的问题之一。到目前为止共和党人作何反应？

DETROW: Theoretical is doing a lot of work there.

德特罗：理论发挥了很大作用。

CHANG: (Laughter).

张：（笑）。

DETROW: The initial Republican reaction is not too warm. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called this plan a Trojan horse, saying the administration is talking about infrastructure, but defining it in a much broader way than Republicans are. They're much more interested in the roads and bridges parts. Remember, the White House has another enormous proposal coming soon. Biden said today it's going to be called the American Families Plan. There's a lot of spending coming down the pike, and you can expect Republicans to say this is just too expensive. Of course, they spent four years largely voting in line with big spending increases President Trump¹⁹ wanted to see.

德特罗：共和党最初的反应并不太热烈。参议院少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔称这项计划是“特洛伊木马”，他认为政府谈论的基础设施，其定义要比共和党人宽泛得多。他们对道路和桥梁部分更感兴趣。记住，白宫很快就会公布另一项大规模提案。拜登今天表示，该提案将被称为美国家庭计划。接下来还会有很多支出计划，预计共和党人会说花费过多。当然，他们花了四年时间才得以实现让多数人投票支持特朗普总统希望看到的大幅支出增长。

CHANG: That is NPR White House correspondent Scott Detrow.

张：以上是NPR新闻驻白宫记者斯科特·德特罗带来的报道。

Thank you, Scott.

谢谢你，斯科特。

DETROW: Sure thing.

德特罗：不客气。

1 solely   

adv.仅仅，唯一地

参考例句：

• Success should not be measured solely by educational achievement.成功与否不应只用学业成绩来衡量。
• The town depends almost solely on the tourist trade.这座城市几乎完全靠旅游业维持。

2 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

3 overhaul   

v./n.大修，仔细检查

参考例句：

• Master Worker Wang is responsible for the overhaul of this grinder.王师傅主修这台磨床。
• It is generally appreciated that the rail network needs a complete overhaul.众所周知，铁路系统需要大检修。

4 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 sprawling   

adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着）

参考例句：

• He was sprawling in an armchair in front of the TV. 他伸开手脚坐在电视机前的一张扶手椅上。
• a modern sprawling town 一座杂乱无序拓展的现代城镇

7 overdue   

adj.过期的，到期未付的；早该有的，迟到的

参考例句：

• The plane is overdue and has been delayed by the bad weather.飞机晚点了，被坏天气耽搁了。
• The landlady is angry because the rent is overdue.女房东生气了，因为房租过期未付。

8 transit   

n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过

参考例句：

• His luggage was lost in transit.他的行李在运送中丢失。
• The canal can transit a total of 50 ships daily.这条运河每天能通过50条船。

9 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

10 blur   

n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚

参考例句：

• The houses appeared as a blur in the mist.房子在薄雾中隐隐约约看不清。
• If you move your eyes and your head,the picture will blur.如果你的眼睛或头动了，图像就会变得模糊不清。

11 plumbers   

n.管子工，水暖工( plumber的名词复数 )；[美][口]（防止泄密的）堵漏人员

参考例句：

• Plumbers charge by the hour for their work. 水管工人的工作是以小时收费的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Plumbers, carpenters, and other workmen finished the new house quickly. 管道工、木工及其他工匠很快完成了这幢新房子。 来自辞典例句

12 injustices   

不公平( injustice的名词复数 )； 非正义； 待…不公正； 冤枉

参考例句：

• One who committed many injustices is doomed to failure. 多行不义必自毙。
• He felt confident that his injustices would be righted. 他相信他的冤屈会受到昭雪的。

13 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

14 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

15 mandates   

托管（mandate的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：

• Individual mandates would require all people to purchase health insurance. 个人托管要求所有人都要购买健康保险。
• While I agree with those benefits, I'm not a supporter of mandates. 我同意上述好处，我不是授权软件的支持者。

16 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

17 rebates   

n.退还款( rebate的名词复数 )；回扣；返还（退还的部份货价）；折扣

参考例句：

• The VAT system offers advantages, such as rebates on exports. 增值税有其优点，如对出口商品实行回扣。 来自辞典例句
• In more recent years rate rebates have been introduced for households. 近年地方税的减免已适用于家庭。 来自辞典例句

18 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

19 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。