The $1.1 trillion ‘bipartisan infrastructure law’ has been nothing but a disaster for Republicans.
Jack Butler writes about how Democrats in Cincinnati are using the $1.1 trillion “bipartisan infrastructure law” that some Republicans joined Democrats to pass to campaign for Harris.
If only someone could have seen this coming . . .
Oh, that’s right, National Review did.
The editors wrote no fewer than five times in 2021 against voting for federal infrastructure spending.
On March 31 of that year, NR said:
Advocates of huge infrastructure spending, meanwhile, claim it’s needed because our infrastructure is “crumbling.” But this is not true, no matter what civil-engineering trade groups say. As laid out in a 2019 study from three economists and a 2020 essay in National Affairs by Eli Lehrer, our infrastructure is, in general, basically fine. The physical condition of interstate highways has actually improved in recent decades, for example, while buses have gotten younger on average and the quality of bridges has remained steady. And America looks good in the international context, with admirably low commute times (despite increases in congestion) and fast broadband. Further, most of America’s genuine infrastructure problems are best handled at the state and local level, rather than by having the federal government subsidize politically preferred projects.
On May 14, NR said:
There is no need for more federal infrastructure spending. Republicans should say that. It is not a good idea to spend trillions of dollars during an expansion. Republicans should say that. We should not borrow more money, or raise taxes, in order to pay for more infrastructure spending. Republicans should say that. States and localities can better decide what they really need to build, and pay for it. Republicans should say that.
On June 24, NR followed up on that:
Last month, we warned Republicans about the pitfalls of indulging President Biden’s infrastructure fantasies. The bipartisan framework announced Thursday isn’t causing us to change our mind.
There is much to dislike about the so-called compromise proposal (even putting aside the minor detail that the nation’s infrastructure is not, in fact, in dire need of repair).
On July 30, NR said:
The decision of Republicans to collaborate with Democrats is both bad policy and makes little sense politically. As we have been saying for months, despite what the media (and evidently, some Republicans) will tell you, America’s infrastructure is not crumbling and is not deeply in need of repair. There is not an economic justification to spend money to stimulate an economy that will recover on its own as the nation emerges from the pandemic (growth accelerated at an annual rate of 6.5 percent in the second quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced on Thursday). Also, it is not as if the government is in the black. The Biden administration’s own estimates foresee debt as a share of the economy surpassing the World War II record this year. And Fed chairman Jerome Powell, who had been insisting that inflation is going to be transitory, has conceded that it will take longer to abate than he previously expected.
On October 29, NR said:
Earlier in the year, we warned Republicans against acquiescing to another half-trillion dollars in new spending, this time on infrastructure. The bill is another exercise in spending money that we don’t have; the legislation includes progressive priorities on climate and other matters that stray beyond roads and bridges; and any bill Republicans helped write was clearly going to be folded into the Democrats’ larger spending project. And so it has come to pass. A month ago, we warned Republicans that, with the progressives digging in, Nancy Pelosi would soon come looking for their help in passing the infrastructure bill. That, too, has come to pass.
“Republicans shouldn’t lend bipartisan credibility to any part of a historic spending blowout, much of which involves extending the social-welfare state on the assumption that new programs will never be rolled back,” that editorial concluded.
Most Republicans listened to us and voted no. The law was less bipartisan than past federal infrastructure laws. But enough Republicans voted yes and lent bipartisan credibility to it, which Biden and Democrats have exploited ruthlessly. Between mocking Republicans who voted against it, incorporating it into “President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda” after it passed, using it to fund progressive projects, and now campaigning for Harris with it, the law has been nothing but a disaster for Republicans politically and has done little to improve actual infrastructure. It has contributed to cost inflation in the infrastructure sector, and contractors are going to come back to Congress over the next few years begging for more money to finish over-budget projects.
Republicans used to understand that opposing wasteful infrastructure spending is good policy and good politics. After the Great Recession, the Obama administration wanted to burn billions of taxpayer dollars on passenger-rail projects. Republican governors Scott Walker (Wis.), John Kasich (Ohio), and Rick Scott (Fla.) refused the money, which the Obama administration partially redirected to California for its high-speed rail project that has still, over a decade later, not carried a single passenger. And all three of those GOP governors all won reelection.
The purpose of a massive spending bill signed into law by a Democratic president is going to be to help Democrats campaign. That was obvious in 2021, and the Republicans who voted for the infrastructure law should regret it now.