Left-wing Sen. Bernie Sanders should get credit for saying the quiet part out loud.
The self-proclaimed socialist and Vermont independent doesn’t believe government can ever be too big, too intrusive, or too costly.
Thus, his strange take on President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion “infrastructure” plan.
Appearing on CNN on Sunday, Sanders noted some of America’s physical plant needs help, even if Biden fibs in articulating the need.
In his only press conference so far, for example, Biden said, “I still think the majority of the American people don’t like the fact that we are now ranked, what, 85th in the world in infrastructure.” Nine sentences later, he said, “we rank 13th globally in infrastructure.”
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Nonetheless, on CNN, Sanders noted, “I think every American understands that our infrastructure – our roads and our bridges, water systems, wastewater plants – are falling apart, and we can create millions of jobs rebuilding them.”
It can be argued whether this requires the federal government to carry this burden. Residents of South Carolina, for instance, have no effect on the wastewater systems in Seattle or Chicago – and vice versa. Democrats harp on the supposed problem, but never address why this is not simply a local issue to be solved at the local level.
Despite that, Sanders showed by an incredibly expansive definition of “infrastructure.”
“Well, you know, it depends on what you call infrastructure,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“Roads and bridges and tunnels are infrastructure. But I think many of us see a crisis in human infrastructure. When working-class families can’t find good quality, affordable child care, that’s human infrastructure.”
Sanders continued, “One of the areas that I am working on right now is the need to expand Medicare in order to provide dental care and hearing aids and eyeglasses for millions and millions of seniors who need these services but can’t afford it.”
“Is that infrastructure? I think it is,” he added.
“Look, Jake, the truth is, in so many ways, we are behind many other countries throughout the world in providing for working families and the elderly and the children. And I think now is the time to begin addressing our physical infrastructure and our human infrastructure. I want to see that happen as soon as possible.”
As Sanders suggests, at least in this effort, the Democrats are not trying to hide the misdirect. In fact, they’re blatantly trumpeting it.
Newsweek noted on Friday the plan contains just $115 billion for spending on roads and bridges. That equates to just 6 percent of the total spending.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell picked up on this point, saying “Less than 6 percent of this massive White House proposal would go to roads and bridges. It would spend more on electric cars than on roads, bridges, ports, airports, and waterways combined.”
To McConnell’s argument, according to a chart pieced together by USA Today, Biden intends to spend $157 billion on those roads, bridges, ports, airports, and waterways, and $174 billion for electric cars – including building 500,000 charging stations – that presumably would roll over roads and bridges that would still be crumbling.
Whether or not Sanders gets his wish, it’s clear one of the last things this bill will spend on is actual infrastructure.
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