Nit Pickers

 Joe Biden's infrastructure plan is ambitious and largely very good. It addresses climate change in ways that have not even been tried in America before and addresses environmental racism and classism that forces the costs of pollution on poor and minority neighborhoods. It's really good. 

Catherine Rampell argues that Biden's plan is flawed because it only raises taxes on the rich. Her philosophical argument is that we need to understand that taxation is how we pay for things, including new infrastructure and a livable environment. As a philosophical exercise...sure. OK. Luckily, Joe Biden is not an ideologue or a philosopher. He wants to get this thing done. So, taxes on the rich - very popular - it will be.

Matt Yglasias (sub req) attacks it from a very "on brand" perspective. He's arguing that the WAY Biden is cobbling together the plan is flawed. For instance, it includes a lot of money for light and high speed rail, without demanding reforms of the entities that build and maintain them. OK, that's a legitimate complaint, but is that the first priority? He also complains about the amount of money spent on "surface transportation" - roads, bridges, ports, airports - because that's not necessarily an efficient use of money. This was money that should have been spent in 2009-2012, but isn't as necessary now. This largely ignores the bigger crisis in America's crumbling infrastructure. We've underinvested in basic things like highways for decades, and now the bill is coming due. 

There's some more blah blah blah about how it could be bipartisan - which...what planet are you from, Matt? - and the progressive criticisms from the irrelevant minds of people like David Sirota. I'm certain there will be parts of this bill that will change to accommodate certain stakeholders, but you have Fox News running chryons complaining about how the bill removes lead pipes and lead paint from housing or helps fund community colleges...like that's a bad thing? (My favorite was Kristi Noem (R-Covid) complaining that the infrastructure bill focused on things like housing and pollution. Do you even infrastructure?)

Trump endlessly promised "Infrastructure Week" without delivering, to the point where it became a sick joke. Biden is offering a transformational bill that will extend infrastructure improvements into the next decade. (Even Republicans won't cancel it, should they - Dog forbid - regain power.)

It's finally Infrastructure Week, and I couldn't be happier.