‘On The Cusp’ Of ‘Urgent Things’

“We’re on the cusp of an infrastructure decade,” Joe Biden declared, in remarks delivered Tuesday afternoon after the Senate passed a bipartisan plan months in the making. The vote was 69-30. Mitch McConnell joined 18 other Republicans in supporting the bill.

I said “months in the making.” That’s not quite right. It’s actually years, or even decades in the making. America’s elected officials have been talking about infrastructure for so long that “infrastructure week” became a standing joke — a hashtag that neatly encapsulated the farcical ineptitude on display inside the Beltway.

Even President Bob the Builder, self-proclaimed king of “deals,” couldn’t get an infrastructure deal done. And the country may be better off for that failure. God only knows what kind of ridiculous shenanigans would have accompanied a massive “Trump Works” program — like giving Tony Soprano a lobotomy and then putting him in charge of a half-trillion in new construction contracts.

I’ve been over the details of the infrastructure plan on so many occasions I’ve lost track. It includes $65 billion for high-speed internet, $25 billion for airports, funding for Amtrak and $110 billion for roads and bridges, among other things. Suffice to say that I, for one, remain of the opinion that $550 billion (in new spending) amounts to little more than lip service even as, to quote The New York Times, “the legislation would be the largest infusion of federal investment into infrastructure projects in more than a decade… provid[ing] historic levels of funding for the modernization of the nation’s power grid and projects to better manage climate risks, as well as pour[ing] hundreds of billions of dollars into the repair and replacement of aging public works projects.”

It’s a win, sure. And it’s “not nothin’,” so to speak. But at the same time, consider that, between the three of them, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg control as much wealth as the bill authorizes in new federal spending. That speaks to both capitalism run totally amok and to the notion that $550 billion really isn’t a lot of money these days, or at least not to the folks at the very top of the social hierarchy.

Thankfully, a $3.5 trillion bundle of social spending is on deck, and that’s where the rubber really meets the (newly-paved) road.

The “bipartisan” nature of the infrastructure deal belies the fact that, from the beginning, the White House was never going to get fully behind the proposal unless the ball was already rolling on a reconciliation bill aimed at bypassing the filibuster and enshrining the remainder of Biden’s economic agenda into law.

Senate Democrats are aiming to pass the budget resolution posthaste. It’ll include higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy. Chuck Schumer branded it “big, bold change — the kind America thirsts for.” For her part, Nancy Pelosi called the budget resolution “transformative.”

Pelosi is the key, and she’s under pressure from House Progressives, three of whom are minor celebrities, and one of whom may well be President one day (and already is in the nightmares of Republicans).

Progressives have threatened to stymie the infrastructure deal unless and until the Senate moves on the budget resolution. This time, at least, Pelosi is with them. “Whatever you can achieve in a bipartisan way — bravo, we salute it,” she said late last week. “At the same time, we’re not going forward with leaving people behind.”

Needless to say, some moderate Democrats in the House aren’t excited about that kind of obstinance, but in a letter to Pelosi, the leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said they won’t support the infrastructure deal until the reconciliation process plays out in the Senate.

“All of these things are urgent, and we’re going to get them done together,” Pelosi insisted.

Now, who’s excited for vote-a-rama?!