American Jobs Plan (4/11/21)

Lately, it has been interesting watching the news media, Republicans, Democrats, and anyone who has an opinion discussing and debating the word infrastructure. It comes on the heels of President Biden’s rollout of his $2 Trillion new infrastructure proposal, the “American Jobs Plan”. The fixation on the definition of a rather generic word is steeped in debate by the Republicans of what they think should be covered in an infrastructure bill. Suddenly, it seems the only thing they can agree on that we should consider as infrastructure is roads and bridges. President Biden’s idea, however, is that “infrastructure has always evolved to meet the aspirations of the American people and their needs. And it is evolving again today,” The Biden plan includes broadband, airports, highways, drinking water, schools, childcare, and so much more. It seems the Republicans are stuck in a 20th century definition while Biden is promoting a 21st century vision.

There is beauty for the Democrats in debating an uncharged, popular, meat and potato word like infrastructure. Can the debate over the definition of infrastructure allow the Democrats to highlight that the Republicans are holding back progress? The Republicans must find a way to justify their obstructionism that doesn’t tell Americans that we shouldn’t repair our schools, bridges, and roads; or that we should tax our blue-collar workers rather than large corporations; or that we should tell women, who were disproportionately pushed out of the workforce due to COVID, that we shouldn’t enhance our caregiving network. The “American Jobs Plan” is far from being passed in Congress, but the positioning of the debate over “infrastructure” is becoming a lot more exciting than we might have thought.