President Biden's Infrastructure Plans

[Elixir]

The squad was a major gift to the GOP.

Yes, in the same sense that Trump was a "major gift" to the Dems.
"They seem so lacking in self awareness, I doubt they'll ever recognize their foolishness."

 

[Toni]

I can't say I didn't anticipate this is how it would turn out. I cheered for progressives showing the backbone they did, and I wish them to get more members and keep pushing.

I'm also grateful to the squad (although I dislike a couple of them and some of their positions quite a bit) for pushing/pulling the party to the left and for giving young folks some hope that eventually there will actually be a progressive party to vote for.

 

[Harry Bosch]

I can't say I didn't anticipate this is how it would turn out. I cheered for progressives showing the backbone they did, and I wish them to get more members and keep pushing.

But they accomplished as much towards infrastructure as Trump did: nothing. I'd respect fighting for your positions as hard as you can. But then to vote no on the compromised bill (both bills) is accomplishing nothing. And credit that comes from the compromised bill can't be shared by them.

 

[thebeave]

I can't say I didn't anticipate this is how it would turn out. I cheered for progressives showing the backbone they did, and I wish them to get more members and keep pushing.

But they accomplished as much towards infrastructure as Trump did: nothing. I'd respect fighting for your positions as hard as you can. But then to vote no on the compromised bill (both bills) is accomplishing nothing. And credit that comes from the compromised bill can't be shared by them.

On the other hand, they may have the last laugh if the whole thing turns out to be a big, wasteful, corrupt government boondoggle, resulting in massive inflation.

 

[ZiprHead]

Democrats, Stung by Electoral Losses, Press Forward on Biden Agenda - The New York Times - "Disappointed by a loss in Virginia and a closer-than-expected race in New Jersey, Democrats were working toward quick action on key bills to show they could govern."

I think the electoral losses should instead lead them to slow down with "transformative" legislation. Pass the bipartisan infrastructure, but slow down on Spendapalooza.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I can't say I didn't anticipate this is how it would turn out. I cheered for progressives showing the backbone they did, and I wish them to get more members and keep pushing.

There is stuff under the surface that likely is occurring. I wasn't particularly happy with what appeared to be random chaos in negotiations. The Dems didn't look constructive here, which makes me feel that the under the surface negotiations weren't all too comprehensive. Pelosi's posture appeared to be one of very defensive. She got at least the first bill over the line, which shouldn't have been that hard. The "progs", I'm not sold that these people are progs but rather populists, strained the process to much... much like the conservative Sinema and Manchin did of which I'm extraordinarily upset with as well. It seemed neither they nor the progs know how to negotiate.

 

[ZiprHead]

A wave of good news for Biden wrecks media's doomsday narrative

Addicted to “Biden crisis” reporting since August, and often bending common sense in order to adhere to the Dems in Disarray narrative, the Beltway media now face a conundrum. Do they stick with their GOP-friendly script about an ineffectual president in free fall? Or do they follow the facts and report on Biden’s increasingly impressive list of accomplishments and a runaway U.S. economy that’s flourishing?

Three events unraveled the Biden Doomsday narrative on Friday. A white-hot jobs report not only counted more than 530,000 new jobs created in the month of October, but the Labor Department revised its estimates for September and August and confirmed an additional 235,000 positions were created — or 766,000 U.S. jobs we didn’t know about until Friday. That shocker naturally sent to the Dow Jones upward, ending the day at yet another all-time high under Biden, 36,327. Since he was elected last year, the stock market is up a jaw-dropping 40 percent, and has created $14 trillion in new wealth.

Then as the clock ticked down Friday night, Democrats passed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, the largest transportation package in U.S. history. The sprawling and historic legislation will produce hundreds of thousands of union jobs, transform the nation’s transportation system and represents the largest passenger rail, roads and bridges investment in 70 years.

All of this while the number of U.S. Covid deaths continue to plummet, the vaccination rate climbs, including among children, and Pfizer just announced a new pill — Paxlovid — that cuts the risk of hospitalization or death for Covid patients by nearly 90 percent. “The end of the pandemic is now in clear view, and secure,” says Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner.

Combined, the three Friday wins produced the type of day most sitting presidents dream about. They also came amidst a premature funeral procession, eagerly sponsored by the media, which featured an avalanche of doomsday pronouncements following disappointing Democratic election showings in Virginia and New Jersey on Tuesday. (See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.)

In the middle of the afternoon on Friday, news consumers visiting WashingtonPost.com had to scroll down past 75 different stories and links before they found the first mention of the blockbuster jobs report. Ironically, at the top of the Post site Friday afternoon was a column about how the White House is having trouble spreading good news about the economy. Over at CNN.com, readers at the “US” homepage had to scroll past 70 stories before seeing the first jobs headline.

Saturday’s front page of the New York Times announced the passage of the infrastructure bill, but stressed in the headline that Democrats were still “haggling” over the Build Back Better social spending bill. Just in case readers didn’t pick up on the pessimistic framing, the Times ran an accompanying report about how America feels “gloomy” under Biden.

Sunday’s Washington Post reported on how Biden “finally” had some good news to tout. But most of the Post article retraced how difficult it had been for Biden to get the infrastructure bill passed, while detailing Biden’s “yelling has become more frequent and directed at a wider audience of staff.” Imagine what the Post coverage would have looked like if the infrastructure bill had been voted down.

This is what happens when the press becomes wed to a gotcha storyline. The doomsday narrative took hold in August when the U.S. troop pullout in Afghanistan exploded into a weeks-long story, and was covered almost universally as a cataclysmic failure, even though the Biden administration not only ended the Forever War for America, but oversaw the largest, most efficient wartime evacuation in history, spiriting 120,000 Afghans out of the country. Nonetheless, the press was sure it was the White House’s “summer from hell” and that Biden was in a political “free fall.”

The media’s obsession with dinging Biden has produced some truly regrettable journalism. CNN’s infamous milk report last week was among the worst.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

BIden is taking a bit of crap for the economy (again, inherited), pandemic, being a Democrat, Afghanistan, but for all things considered, this is the time to be taking the lumps. Getting the infrastructure bill through will help. The boosters and immunizations of children should also help to stabilize the economy.

The GOP is licking its lips, but the truth is, things aren't looking bad for the country in the next 12 months. Except for a ruling axing Roe v Wade, which could actually backfire hard against the GOP.

 

[lpetrich]

Madison Cawthorn on Twitter: "Vote for this infrastructure bill and I will primary the hell out of you." / Twitter

That might be hard for him to do in person, but he might want to support primary challengers for them.

Matt Gaetz on Twitter: "I can’t believe Republicans just gave the Democrats their socialism bill." / Twitter

It's evident that it's only socialism when a Democrat does it. If it's a Republican, then it's a patriotic investment.

Marjorie Taylor Greene on Twitter: "This is the kind of that 13 Republicans voted for when they voted with Pelosi for the Infrastructure bill.

$1 Billion to rebuild highways because they are racist.

I hope every Republican voter actually reads the literal lies and crap in that bill bc 13 R’s helped it pass." / Twitter

Responding to
The Hill on Twitter: "Transportation @SecretaryPete: " If an underpass was constructed such that a bus carrying mostly Black and Puerto Rican kids to a beach, [...] in New York was designed too low for it to pass by, that that obviously reflects racism that went into those design choices." (vid link)" / Twitter
What he was talking about:
Robert Moses' Low Parkway Bridges — NYC URBANISM

During the summer New Yorkers flock to the beaches on Long Island using the network of parkways and highways designed by Master Planner Robert Moses. Occasionally there are reports of accidents when trucks or buses hit one of the low overpasses. Two years ago a bus full of high school students plowed into a low bridge on the Southern State Parkway. The Parkway was planned in 1925 by Moses to improve access for motorists to his newly constructed Jones Beach. Sid Shapiro, one of Moses’ closest associates, speaks to the construction of the bridges in the iconic 1974 Moses biography The Power Broker, ”too low for buses to pass. Bus trips, therefore had to be made on local roads, making the trips discouragingly long and arduous. For Negroes, whom he considered inherently "dirty," there were further measures. Buses needed permits to enter state parks; buses chartered by Negro groups found it very difficult to obtain permits, particularly to Moses' beloved Jones Beach." (p318)

Then discussing whether or not that claim was valid.

Buttigieg Observed Some Highways Have A Racist Past. Here's What That Meant In NYC - Gothamist

After Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told news website The Grio in an interview published last week that "there is racism physically built" into some highways, a heated corner of the internet began relitigating the history of highway building and urban planning in the U.S.

Buttigieg seemed to be referencing infrastructure projects that divided communities and were tainted with racial bias by those in charge during an interview touting President Joe Biden's jobs and infrastructure proposal.

...
For those unfamiliar, Moses was an urban planner in New York credited with building many bridges and highways around the metro area. He has been credited for opening Jones Beach to the public—but is infamously cited in Robert Caro's The Power Broker as making the Southern State Parkway leading to the beach inaccessible via public transportation because overpasses were built too low for buses to pass. The structural choice is now seen as a tactic intended to keep people of color from accessing the beach.

...
To build Lincoln Center, Moses displaced 7,000 families, many who were low-income, in the process. The construction of the Bronx's Cross-Bronx Expressway divided neighborhoods and has become the structural signifier of high asthma rates in the Bronx.

...
In Brooklyn, Moses built the BQE, structurally cutting off Red Hook from the borough and the wealthier neighborhoods of Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights. Transportation Alternatives, a street safety advocacy group, wrote in a blog post last summer: "Moving between these neighborhoods requires finding the single pedestrian overpass, or crossing a fast eight-lane street on one of very few crosswalks under the highway. This is the legacy of Robert Moses."

noting
Buttigieg says racism built into US infrastructure was a 'conscious choice' - TheGrio
and
Robert Moses’s Jones Beach - Curbed NY

 

[lpetrich]

Marjorie Taylor Greene on Twitter: "13 Republicans ..." / Twitter

13 Republicans voted with Pelosi to spend $7.5 billion to build EV charging stations all over America to force Americans to drive CCP battery driven cars.

China dominates the EV battery market by over 80% & the US can’t even compete with less than 10% market share.

Those 13 Republican traitors who voted to pass Biden’s Socialist Infrastructure bill agree with Globalist Joe that America must depend on China to drive EV’s.

The unlucky 13 are China-First and America-Last.

13 American job & energy killers

Then a picture of a printed list of these 13 villains.

 

[Keith&Co.]

noting
Buttigieg says racism built into US infrastructure was a 'conscious choice' - TheGrio
and
Robert Moses’s Jones Beach - Curbed NY

When i was stationed in Virginia Beach, the city often tried to fund a metro train line to the beach, to alleviate parking and traffic issues at the resort, increase access to the tourist dollar, and allow Navy personnel from Norfolk, Little Creek, and Portsmouth better access to the beaches (and beach restaurants, beach shops, beach rentals).
It got defeated every time because the VB residents didn't want 'inner city' people from Norfolk and Portsmouth on their beaches.
So we sat in traffic, slow-crawling up Atlantic Ave because a multi-benefit solution would improve the wrong lives as well as our own.
Fuckers.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

noting
Buttigieg says racism built into US infrastructure was a 'conscious choice' - TheGrio
and
Robert Moses’s Jones Beach - Curbed NY

When i was stationed in Virginia Beach, the city often tried to fund a metro train line to the beach, to alleviate parking and traffic issues at the resort, increase access to the tourist dollar, and allow Navy personnel from Norfolk, Little Creek, and Portsmouth better access to the beaches (and beach restaurants, beach shops, beach rentals).
It got defeated every time because the VB residents didn't want 'inner city' people from Norfolk and Portsmouth on their beaches.
So we sat in traffic, slow-crawling up Atlantic Ave because a multi-benefit solution would improve the wrong lives as well as our own.
Fuckers.

Same reason NE Ohio doesn't get public transit... because places like Medina don't want "those people" coming down. Because apparently "those people" love Gazebos and want to hang out in boring ass Medina.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Madison Cawthorn on Twitter: "Vote for this infrastructure bill and I will primary the hell out of you." / Twitter

That might be hard for him to do in person, but he might want to support primary challengers for them.

Matt Gaetz on Twitter: "I can’t believe Republicans just gave the Democrats their socialism bill." / Twitter

It's evident that it's only socialism when a Democrat does it. If it's a Republican, then it's a patriotic investment.

Marjorie Taylor Greene on Twitter: "This is the kind of that 13 Republicans voted for when they voted with Pelosi for the Infrastructure bill.
$1 Billion to rebuild highways because they are racist.
I hope every Republican voter actually reads the literal lies and crap in that bill bc 13 R’s helped it pass." / Twitter

Responding to
The Hill on Twitter: "Transportation @SecretaryPete: " If an underpass was constructed such that a bus carrying mostly Black and Puerto Rican kids to a beach, [...] in New York was designed too low for it to pass by, that that obviously reflects racism that went into those design choices." (vid link)" / Twitter
What he was talking about:
Robert Moses' Low Parkway Bridges — NYC URBANISM

During the summer New Yorkers flock to the beaches on Long Island using the network of parkways and highways designed by Master Planner Robert Moses. Occasionally there are reports of accidents when trucks or buses hit one of the low overpasses. Two years ago a bus full of high school students plowed into a low bridge on the Southern State Parkway. The Parkway was planned in 1925 by Moses to improve access for motorists to his newly constructed Jones Beach. Sid Shapiro, one of Moses’ closest associates, speaks to the construction of the bridges in the iconic 1974 Moses biography The Power Broker, ”too low for buses to pass. Bus trips, therefore had to be made on local roads, making the trips discouragingly long and arduous. For Negroes, whom he considered inherently "dirty," there were further measures. Buses needed permits to enter state parks; buses chartered by Negro groups found it very difficult to obtain permits, particularly to Moses' beloved Jones Beach." (p318)

Then discussing whether or not that claim was valid.

Hmm... so the Robert Moses Pkwy out near Niagara Falls is gonna be getting renamed soon?

 

[barbos]

I think democrats have opportunity here. All the need to do is to pass "Let's not shot ourselves in the head" bill.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I think democrats have opportunity here. All the need to do is to pass "Let's not shot ourselves in the head" bill.

The Dems helped provide more people with Health Care and they were slaughtered in 2010. This time around, the economy could work in the Dems' favor, but America has a habit of voting dumbly.

 

[Derec]

This time around, the economy could work in the Dems' favor, but America has a habit of voting dumbly.

The economy plagued by 6% inflation and ongoing supply-chain issues? The economy that Dems want to dump $2T more entitlement spending in, as if that would not heat up inflation even more?

 

[Derec]

Buttigieg says racism built into US infrastructure was a 'conscious choice' - TheGrio

He has been yapping about these allegedly racist overpasses for months. Give it a rest already!
I expected a bit more out of him than to be Secretary of Woke ...

 

[barbos]

I think democrats have opportunity here. All the need to do is to pass "Let's not shot ourselves in the head" bill.

The Dems helped provide more people with Health Care and they were slaughtered in 2010. This time around, the economy could work in the Dems' favor, but America has a habit of voting dumbly.

You did not understand the idea. I meant literally.

 

[barbos]

This time around, the economy could work in the Dems' favor, but America has a habit of voting dumbly.

The economy plagued by 6% inflation and ongoing supply-chain issues? The economy that Dems want to dump $2T more entitlement spending in, as if that would not heat up inflation even more?

Well, after republicans got their $6T in entitlement spending. I think it's only fair that everyone gets $2T.

 

[lpetrich]

A lot of things often called racial issues are really class issues, it seems to me. For example, Robert Moses's low overpasses were designed to exclude those who could not afford their own cars, so it's an exclusion of lower classes sort of thing. But Americans seem more willing to talk about race than about class, and that IMO does a great disservice.

Trump releases statement trashing McConnell for not passing infrastructure while he was president. But it was Trump who walked away from a $2 trillion deal in 2019.

In May 2019, Democratic leaders and the Trump administration had a productive first round of negotiations around a floated $2 trillion infrastructure package.

But the deal crumbled over the Democratic-controlled House investigations into Trump after the release of then-special counsel Robert Mueller's report.

During a second meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Trump walked out within three minutes of negotiations.

"Instead of walking in happily to a meeting, I walk in to look at people that just said that I was doing a cover-up. I don't do cover-ups," Trump said at a press conference in the White House Rose Garden flanked by a sign that said "No Collusion, No Obstruction."