Bidens Infrastructure Bill Is Being Kicked Around Like A Piece Of Trash.

After weeks of back and forth, President Joe Biden released a new framework for his Build Back Better (BBB) agenda Thursday, which includes approximately $1.75 trillion of investments to combat climate change, extend health care coverage and alleviate child poverty, among other priorities. The problem is, our economy has already taken a hit. Centrists like Joe Manchin are perplexed by the march forward with the huge bill.

“The Build Back Better framework will set the U.S. on course to meet our climate targets, create millions of good-paying jobs and grow our economy from the bottom up and the middle out.”

– Joe Biden

The framework includes $1.75 trillion of infrastructure funding, and an additional $100 billion for immigration backlogs and expand legal representation at the border that is contingent upon a ruling by the Senate parliamentarian, bringing the total to $1.85 trillion. Things are still changing and there is no guarantee that this will be the final version of the bill. In fact Joe Manchin has expressed his discontent with the rushed infrastructure bill.

While I am hopeful that common ground can be found that would result in another historic investment in our nation, I cannot — and will not — support trillions in spending or an all-or-nothing approach that ignores the brutal fiscal reality our nation faces. There is a better way and I believe we can find it if we are willing to continue to negotiate in good faith.

– Joe Manchin

The social safety net, and climate infrastructure bill has been skewed to a shell of what it was. Once a $3.5T proposal, it’s now being cut down to $1.5T. Many democrats have expressed their concerns amid the looming economic threat that the pandemic poses to modern civilization.

Arizona centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s opposition to Medicare negotiating prescription drug prices means that policy is out too, a significant blow for Democrats who have campaigned on the issue for 15 years.

Missing from the framework — which Democrats said they expect to modify — are many progressive priorities. A path to citizenship for so-called Dreamers is gone, as are vision and dental benefits in Medicare. The bill does not lift the cap on state and local taxes, known as SALT.

Representative Pramila Jayapal called Biden’s expectations for the voting results of the social spending bill “a bit of a leap of faith”. Biden told House Democrats that he believed the social spending bill would get 50 Senate votes and enough support to get through the House, but that confidence did not convince them.

Barack Obama seemingly had the same issue when pursuing the climate crisis agenda. His strategy for tackling climate change counted on Congress passing a bipartisan bill, which would have capped climate pollution and created a market for trading credits. Success depended on the support of wary Democrats as well as some Republicans. By summer 2010, Obama appointees admitted they didn’t have the votes in the Senate. The bill quietly died that summer, and the path to passing a federal law closed when Tea Party-backed Republicans swept the midterm elections.

In short, Biden has done a horrific job at convincing anybody that this bill is worth consideration when taking our current economy into account. He attempted to push the deal out without revisions as it was, which seemed like bait for his political adversaries. Not to mention the fact that only just now are we seeing the contents of this infrastructure package. $1.5T is still a huge amount of money to dump into “infrastructure”, and cutting your bill in half from $3T doesn’t make it any more justified. The American people need to decide what they need, just because Joe can take a nap in the oval office and wake up with an idea doesn’t mean we all support it. There is something to be said about the fact that he presents himself as a senile old dope, and behind closed doors he devises elaborate plans to ruin the state of our country.