Americans have broadly agreed for years that the nation’s transportation infrastructure is in desperate need of attention. Across party lines, people want the U.S. to once again be a country with modern and excellent roads, bridges, airports and rail lines.
And Americans want something else — a functional political environment that can deliver these priorities in a way that is fiscally sound and that uses America’s credit to fund long-term investments that will pay off for generations and cost less to build in today’s dollars than they would in tomorrow’s.
That’s what we got in Washington last week. Well, almost. President Joe Biden announced an all too rare bipartisan agreement on a $1 trillion infrastructure package that was hammered out by five Republicans and five Democrats. If the president signs it, it would not only represent important progress for the restoration of our infrastructure, but it also could signal a turning point in our politics.
We were heartened by the president’s words during his announcement of the deal.
“Neither side got everything they wanted in this deal, and that’s what it means to compromise. And it reflects something important: It reflects consensus. The heart of democracy requires consensus,” Biden said.
Most of us who don’t work in politics also recognize that as life, or what the kids sometimes call “adulting.”
Unfortunately, what the president gave in one moment, he appeared to take away in the next.
“If this is the only thing that comes to me, I’m not signing it,” he said.
Biden promised he wouldn’t sign the infrastructure bill unless a far more divisive part of his economic agenda was passed in tandem.
Then the president gave us another twist, saying he would stay true to the promise to support the infrastructure deal.
“I gave my word to support the Infrastructure Plan, and that’s what I intend to do. I intend to pursue the passage of that plan, which Democrats and Republicans agreed to on Thursday, with vigor,” he said.
We aren’t sure what to think now. What we know is the progressive Democratic wing won’t be happy with just an infrastructure deal. And the president wants to deliver those progressives the second part of his plan.
That plan would advance any number of progressive causes at a cost of trillions while raising taxes. It’s far from certain Democrats can get the legislation through Congress and onto Biden’s desk. So why tie up a good deal that is constructive in so many ways with one that raises far more political problems? And why confuse the matter further by backtracking?
The answer is probably something we should get accustomed to in this administration. The president has a habit of trying to please moderates of both parties while also trying to satisfy the progressive wing of his party. At some point, that won’t wash. We just hope it doesn’t wash out this deal.
The president was right on another point. “We’re in a race with China and the rest of the world for the 21st century. This agreement signals to the world that we can function, deliver and do significant things,” he said.
We can’t lose that race. Democracy can’t afford it. Why in the world would we put that at risk when, for once it seems, we can all agree on something?
