Infrastructure Scorecard
It’s hard to talk about the infrastructure legislation being discussed in Washington because the situation is so fluid. Politico, however, has some predictions and how it might all be spun.
Smart betting is that instead of a $3.5 trillion human infrastructure bill, the number will be closer to $2 trillion. That seems like a win for moderates who did not want to spend so much, and a loss for progressives who wanted $6 trillion.
But a deeper look into how that $2 trillion would be spent suggests that progressives may also have won. That’s because their caucus has apparently convinced the president to fund all the massive programs they want to create, but to do so for a limited period of time. That meets the progressives’ goal of huge government intervention in more of our lives, but meets the moderates’ goal of a smaller price tag.
And we all know how hard it will be to get rid of a government program once it’s set up…so while it’s a legislative trick, it’s one that may work.
But Politico also suggests that Speaker Nancy Pelosi is coming up a loser on all this in a couple of respects. First, she publicly said that instead of doing all the programs progressives wanted, this bill should be about “doing fewer things better”… funding a few key programs on a more permanent basis as opposed to the broader approach. But she appears to have lost this argument…as well as losing out on her plan to more permanently shore up the Affordable Care Act. Instead of that, it’s looking more like Bernie Sanders’ plan to include dental coverage in Medicare will be adopted.
Again, this all could have changed massively since I started speaking two minutes ago…but how odd that this late in the process, the only one who seems to not find a way to spin it positively is the Speaker of the House, who supposedly was controlling everything about all of it for a long time.
