After Stimulus, Biden to Sort out One other Politically Tough Situation: Infrastructure

Mr Biden campaigned for a sprawling infrastructure agenda that invested trillions of dollars in transportation, water and sewerage, and the scaffolding of an energy sector that would significantly reduce U.S. carbon emissions, funded through tax hikes for multinational corporations and high earners.

The components of the plan coordinate well – which was not enough for Mr Biden’s predecessors.

Mr Obama failed largely for political reasons: the Republicans did not want to give him another victory. His attempt to sell Congress under a $ 50 billion plan to rebuild 150,000 miles of roads, lay and maintain 4,000 miles of railroad tracks, and restore 150 miles of runways suffered from being under its 2009 stimulus plan followed. The Republicans dismissed it as a “stimulus déjà vu”.

While Mr Trump often talked about investing in infrastructure, he never seemed to take addressing the problem seriously and was constantly distracted by other matters. For example, the Trump administration organized an event at Trump Tower in Manhattan in August 2017 to highlight how the administration wanted to streamline permits.

Instead, the press conference turned into one of the worst and defining moments of the Trump presidency: a fiery back-and-forth with reporters in which Mr. Trump defended white supremacists who recently marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, who argued that it was “very good.” People on both sides. “

While selling a message on infrastructure, “we had some communication challenges,” said DJ Gribbin, an infrastructure specialist who was responsible for the event while working for the National Economic Council.

Lobbyists say Mr Biden starts out with a better chance of success than any of his predecessors.

Corporate groups and many Republicans have expressed a willingness to work with government to raise infrastructure spending of $ 1 trillion or more. Areas where progressives can agree on include spending on highways, bridges, rural broadband networks, water and sewer systems, and even some cornerstones of tackling climate change such as charging points for electric cars.

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