Biden asserted bipartisan support for Washington-based legislation
President Biden promised to cross the political divide but, failing to gain Republican support for major bills, his administration seems to change the narrative by redefining what “bipartisan” entails.
First, Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package passed without a single GOP vote, and now Washington’s massive infrastructure package faces heavy Republican opposition. But Biden maintains he enjoys both parties’ encouragement, pointing to Republican voters and officials outside the Beltway.
“If you look up ‘bipartisan’ in the dictionary, I think Republicans and Democrats will accept it,” Senior Advisor Anita Dunn told the Washington Post. “The Republicans need not be in Congress.”
Biden senior advisor Mike Donilon referred to the president’s recent “bipartisan” concept as “an agenda that unifies the country and appeals across the political spectrum.”
“I think it’s a pretty good definition to suggest you’re pushing an agenda that will put together Democrats and Republicans around the world,” Donilon told the Post. “Probably, if you have an agenda widely popular with Democrats and Republicans around the country, you should have elected representatives representing that.”
Former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel remarked on the transition, saying, “What’s become crystal clear is that Biden has redefined bipartisan.” The former mayor of Chicago explained, “It’s not how many Republicans I have, but how many Republican voters or mayors and governors I can help my things.”
“Washington is late to catching up with Biden,” he said.
Biden noted the transition to and from Republican officials while addressing his American Jobs Plan in Pittsburgh at the end of March.
“When I wrote, everyone said I had no bipartisan support. “With Republican registered voters, we have overwhelming bipartisan support,” Biden said.”And think about it. If you live in a city with a Republican mayor, a Republican county executive, or a Republican governor, ask how many would rather get rid of it. Ask them if they helped. “
The president added, “I hope Congressional Republicans will join this initiative.”
The evolving idea of “bipartisan” comes at a time when Democrats justified the bill’s content by redefining the concept of “infrastructure.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., was the first to notice when she tweeted, “Payment is infrastructure. The infrastructure is childcare. Care is infrastructure. “
This caused a chorus of outrage and ridicule from politicians and experts from both sides of the political spectrum.
“Abortions are infrastructure. Controlling guns is infrastructure. Forced unionisation is structure. What the left wants is infrastructure. You know what isn’t? Roads and bridges, “Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tweeted that just 5% of the infrastructure bill dealt with roads and bridges.
Keith Olbermann, the liberal former MSNBC host, said that while the problems mentioned by Gillibrand are significant, they are definitely not infrastructure.
“[W] hen you drain a word of its sense, you damage its effect, its cause, and its worth,” Olbermann said.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm continued the theme from Sunday, telling ABC’s “This Week” that lawmakers should reconsider infrastructure spending.
“It isn’t static. In 1990 we wouldn’t have thought broadband was infrastructure because it wasn’t on the stage yet, but we have broadband in every pocket of the country, of course, “Granholm said. She said, “We don’t want to use previous concepts of ‘infrastructure’ when we move into the future.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Democrats would not limit the infrastructure bill to highways, bridges, and waterways “because infrastructure is about education, about having children in school with separation, sanitation, and ventilation.”It’s all about housing investments. “
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told NBC’s “Meet the Press” last week that the Biden administration wanted bipartisan congressional support for the infrastructure bill, but suggested a lack of it would not stop it.
“We can’t let politics slow this down until it really happens,” he said.
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