Schmidt Wrote: I'm not sure that Trump understands what it takes to get any kind of infrastructure package passed through Congress, especially with the Republicans in the majority in the Senate. It is all for show again...an illusion of progress, but nothing of substance will happen. Perhaps a few token projects with "first shovel" ceremonies and lots of speeches for photo ops. But then back to doing nothing...or whatever the meager gas tax can fund.
Schmidt:
Trump had no clue on how to get an infrastructure bill done.
Biden does, and it's still harder than hell to get it done.
The fact that a bi-partisan "roads and bridges" bill got passed at all is a miracle.
Just as important as the $1.5 trillion "basic bill" is, the $3.5 trillion "social network" bill is equally as important, and AOC has articulated the reasons why very well.
To give you a personal example, our daughter-in-law (Kim) recently started work again. She and my son have two kids, 1 and 3 years old.
Her ENTIRE paycheck goes for day care, so until she gets a raise, they can't get ahead financially.
My son, like me, is a substitute teacher. Although it pays well, he still has to work Door Dash in his time off to make enough money to pay the rent and put food on table AND make his car payment.
Biden is going to have to take a big baseball bat and beat the shit out of some Republicans to get them to see the light. The dual package may still get done, but the Democrats are going to have to pull a couple of rabbits out of the hat to make it happen.
In this country, there are millions of women just like Kim, who are essentially working for free - and that makes no sense at all.
The Wall Street Journal, of course, takes a dim view of the plan:
Democrats are moving quickly to pass a multi-trillion-dollar spending bill via budget reconciliation, with little scrutiny on the details. So the editorial board has been parsing the bill’s vast new entitlements for readers. Take a turbocharged child tax credit that is really a universal basic income, which will discourage work and cost $1 trillion.
BULLSHIT
Or a paid family and medical leave program that purports to help low-income workers but will subsidize affluent Americans earning north of $200,000 a year. The Journal has also walked readers through the array of accounting fictions that make the bill appear cheaper on paper. The true expense may reach $5.5 trillion over a decade, and much more beyond that. The larger cost will be conditioning the American middle class to rely on government for ever more of life’s needs.
The editors need to take a trip to Scandinavia to see why Biden's plan is a good idea.
185 countries have paid family leave. The only three that don't are Papua New Guinea, Oman, and the United States. 86% of the American population supports paid family leave, including 73% of Republican voters.
http://www.allgov.com/news/us-and-the-world/185-countries-guarantee-paid-family-leave-the-3-that-dont-papua-new-guinea-oman-and-us-140628?news=853536#:~:text=185%20Countries%20Guarantee%20Paid%20Family%20Leave%3B%20The%203,that%20don%E2%80%99t%3A%20Papua%20New%20Guinea%2C%20Oman%20and%20U.S.