When it comes to infrastructure, Joe Biden did things that are simply indefensible this weekend. A deal was reached but then thrown into chaos with a veto threat from Biden. Over the weekend, the White House worked furiously to right the ship, but not after Axios reporter Jonathan Swan said this was some classic gaslighting shenanigans. He also said expect some more tweak to occur before it’s signed into law—typical (via Fox News):
President Biden’s complicated infrastructure plan has only led the American public away from reality, Axios national political correspondent Jonathan Swan suggested on "Fox News Sunday."
The White House underwent legislative "scrambling" in clarifying that the $953 billion bipartisan bill would not be signed unless a larger Democratic spending package was passed, just for the president to take it all back in a statement on Saturday.
"Scrambling was about 11 out of 10 and, actually, gaslighting was initially at least 11 or 12 out of 10," Swan said.
[…]
"It is, we should acknowledge, astonishing to basically present this deal as nirvana, the greatest deal that’s ever been struck, essential for the American people," he said. "And then in this sort of very short period of time say, ‘But I’m not going to sign it unless it simultaneously arrives on my desk with this other separate bill for social spending.’"
Both parties wanted to do an infrastructure bill. Both sides agree that our roads, bridges, and tunnels need repairs. Since Adam Smith, if there’s anything government should spend money on concerning upkeep, it’s infrastructure. The problem is that Democrats, and their penchant for either making up or disregard the meaning of words, have expanded ‘infrastructure’ to included things, like childcare, which isn’t the same thing. By this standard, whisky is infrastructure.
Alas, while both sides hashed out a deal that many were bearish on from the start, Biden decided to hurl the whole package into chaos. The bipartisan deal is a massive spending bill, but it comes with no tax hikes. It’s separate from the Democrats’ ‘human infrastructure’ bill that focuses on nonsensical action items. But wait—Biden threatened to veto if both bills didn’t come to his desk. That wasn’t the deal, Joe (via CNBC):
President Joe Biden on Saturday said he doesn’t plan to veto a bipartisan infrastructure bill if it comes without a reconciliation package, walking back a declaration last week that he would refuse to sign it unless the two bills came in tandem.
The comment angered some Republican lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said the president was threatening to veto the bipartisan deal in remarks on the Senate floor on Thursday.
“That statement understandably upset some Republicans, who do not see the two plans as linked,” the president said in a statement.
“My comments also created the impression that I was issuing a veto threat on the very plan I had just agreed to, which was certainly not my intent,” the president said.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers closed a deal on an infrastructure initiative Thursday following weeks of negotiations to craft a package that could get through Congress with Republican and Democratic support. The framework will include $579 billion in new spending to improve the country’s roads, bridges and broadband.
The second bill would include funding for Democrat-backed issues like climate change, childcare, health care and education, issues that administration officials have called “human infrastructure.”
It looks like Biden read the wrong flashcards.