Delta CEO slams Georgia voter law 🗳️

Businesses leaders are weighing in

View in Browser     Time for everyone's favorite super fun topic: infrastructure! No seriously, hear me out... By Allison Morrow 💰 BIDEN'S BIG PITCH   President Biden unveiled his roughly $2 trillion plan for improving the nation's infrastructure and shifting to greener energy over the next eight years.    "It's not a plan that tinkers around the edges," Biden said in a speech in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. "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."   LET'S TALK TURKEY  The spending plan is so massive, it will take 15 years of corporate tax increases to fully offset the $2 trillion price tag.     It is, to be sure, long overdue. The nation's infrastructure recently earned a C- score from the American Society of Civil Engineers.     The infrastructure spending plan is the first of a two-part proposal. The second, a "care economy" package focused on education and child care, is expected to be unveiled in the coming weeks.   Taken together, the spending plans could total as much as $4 trillion.     HOW WILL HE PAY FOR IT?  Taxes. But don't freak out: A good chunk of that will come from raising the corporate income tax rate to 28% from 21%. (It was 35% before former President Trump slashed it in 2017.)      "No one should be able to complain about that. It's still lower than what that rate was between World War II and 2017," Biden said. "Just doing that one thing will generate $1 trillion in additional revenue over 15 years."    The second proposal is expected to be financed through tax increases that would target wealthier individuals and investors — Biden has repeatedly pledged not to raise taxes on families or individuals making less than $400,000.    A JOBS BOOM Biden's clean energy future isn't just about spending on solar panels and wind farms. The White House also wants to hire hundreds of thousands of workers to clean up countless defunct oil and gas wells and reclaim abandoned coal mines, CNN Business' Matt Egan writes. Crucially, many of these mines and wells exist in Appalachia and other communities decimated by the demise of coal and the rise of renewable energy.  🗳️ QUOTE OF THE DAY As Black business leaders, we cannot sit silently in the face of this gathering threat to our nation's democratic values and allow the fundamental right of Americans, to cast their votes for whomever they choose, to be trampled upon yet again. Merck chief executive Ken Frazier and Berkshire Hathaway director Kenneth Chenault were among the 72 Black business leaders who signed a letter calling out Fortune 500 executives for their muted response to new laws that restrict voting across the country.    🍑 GEORGIA FEUD   Delta's CEO and Georgia's governor got into a heated public feud over the state's election law that's sparked outrage nationwide.   SOME BACKGROUND Delta and other Georgia-based companies such as Coca-Cola and Home Depot have been under pressure to denounce the measure, which opponents say amounts to voter suppression that targets minorities. Delta in particular caught flak for its somewhat mushy initial statement.   After the backlash, Delta's CEO issued a new statement attacking the law and acknowledging his view had changed. "I need to make it crystal clear that the final bill is unacceptable and does not match Delta's values," Ed Bastian told employees. "The entire rationale for this bill was based on a lie: that there was widespread voter fraud in Georgia in the 2020 elections. This is simply not true." Gov. Brian Kemp quickly fired back, accusing Bastian of spreading misinformation.   "Today's statement by Delta CEO Ed Bastian stands in stark contrast to our conversations with the company, ignores the content of the new law, and unfortunately continues to spread the same false attacks being repeated by partisan activists," Kemp said.   BIG PICTURE The Georgia elections law, which imposes significant obstacles to voting and makes it illegal to give food and water to voters waiting in a line, has become a political lightning rod that business leaders can't ignore.   Civil rights groups have filed lawsuits to overturn it; President Biden called it "Jim Crow in the 21st Century" and "an atrocity;" multiple businesses are facing boycotts for not doing enough to defeat it. CNN Business' Chris Isidore explains why it's increasingly difficult for business leaders to stay on the sidelines. ✈️ MIDDLE SEATS ARE BACK   Vaccines are rolling out, jobs are coming back, and people are starting to travel again. But with all that good news, there is, of course, some pre-pandemic annoyances that are also returning.    Like crowded subways. And middle seats on planes. For most of last year, airlines were letting the middle seats just sit there, empty, as a buffer space. But all good things have to come to an end.    Delta, the last remaining US airline to keep middle seats unbooked, is now lifting that policy May 1.     MY TWO CENTS Look, we get it – business is business. But shouldn't we aspire to live in a world where no one has to be subjected to the horrors of being wedged between two strangers in a narrow birth while sucking in recycled air through a mask?    Free idea for airlines: Keep the middle seat buffer or make the whole cabin business-class-size double seats. Also: Start running a few key routes as dog-friendly flights where pups of all sizes can hang in the cabin. (Delta, get at me, I've got loads of these...)  WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON? 🧻TP inflation: You could soon pay more for Huggies, Pull-Ups and Scott toilet paper.   🗣️Hey Siri: Apple will no longer make the voice of its virtual assistant female by default. Now users will get to pick between a male and female voice as well as six different accents. (Personally, we like the Irish one.)   📱Losing its crown: Huawei is no longer the world's biggest smartphone maker. And it may never be again.   🎉A new look: Robinhood is getting rid of its controversial confetti feature as the app faces growing scrutiny over its so-called gamification of trading. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up to subscribe. All CNN Newsletters  |  Manage Profile Cable News Network, Inc. A WarnerMedia Company 1 Cnn Center NW Atlanta, GA 30303 unsubscribe

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