Thread by @doctorow

The infrastructure bills are working their way through Congress, and Republicans are indiscriminately blocking them. Take the surface transportation bills: $547b over five years, that passed with only one GOP vote in favor.

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That might seem like a lot, but it's just a re-authorization of existing spending. It doesn't authorize a single cent of new maintenance and upkeep - it just continues the existing level of spending. Without it, America would stop maintaining its infrastructure altogether.

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In other words, the ENTIRE GOP CAUCUS (except @RepBrianFitz R-PA) voted to zero out America's infrastructure maintenance programs for the next five years.

prospect.org/politics/every…

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But don't get too smug. Congressional and Senate Dems are ALSO playing games with infrastructure, voting to let America's rail, highways and bridges continue to crumble.

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Take the bipartisan "Problem Solvers Caucus," composed of Republicans who think they're still in power and Democrats who wish Republicans were still in power.

They've announced a "compromise" infrastructure bill worth $1.125T - but it's a scam.

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That sum includes the existing budget for infrastructure (the inadequate sum that the GOP just voted against), bringing the true total down to $761.8b over five years.

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This pattern - inadequate sums that are even lower than they seem at first, thanks to deceptive accounting - is repeated in every "bipartisan" effort to create an infrastructure budget.

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The Senate "gang" of 5 Dems and 5 Repubs claim they've agreed to $1.2T in spending, but only $579B of that is NEW spending.

wsj.com/articles/bipar…

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That Senate deal is such dogshit that it would be laughable, except that it's being treated as serious. For one thing, it claws back covid money that's been allocated to the states...for infrastructure spending, and it imposes a tax on electric vehicle drivers.

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To top it all off, McConnell has said there's "no way" the GOP will support it. To sum up: it's a wholly inadequate sum that confiscates state infrastructure budgets and depends on taxing people for switching to electric cars, AND it's got no chance of passing.

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And they call us unrealistic!

There is no chance of getting the spending America needs through Congress with "regular order." If the agenda Americans voted for is to be realized, Dems will have to abandon bipartisanship.

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Unfortunately, the Dem establishment are basically Republicans. As @AOC told @CNN, the betrayal is coming from inside the House (or rather, the Senate).

commondreams.org/news/2021/06/1…

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"I do think that we need to talk about the elephant in the room, which is Senate Democrats blocking crucial items in a Democratic agenda for reasons that I don't think hold a lot of water."

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"Do we settle for an infrastructure package that has been largely designed by Republicans in order to get 60 votes, or can we really transform this country, create millions of union jobs, revamp our power grid, get people's bridges fixed and schools rebuilt?"

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AOC singled out Joe Manchin for taking positions that align with the Koch network and dark-money priorities: "There's a reason the Koch brothers are really doing victory laps about Joe Manchin's opposition to the filibuster."

eof/

ETA - If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2021/06/14/eut…