The Republican party, who is always at the ready to engage in warfare without consideration of the financial cost, has balked at the price tag for President Joe Biden's "Build America Back Better" plan. The plan, who would have invested in upgrading the nation's infrastructure, currently sits in dry dock. Some of the key items in the bill would have assured that broadband reached more rural areas, some of which lack any true internet access. It also would have upgraded transportation in America. Crumbling bridges and failing roads would have been upgraded, as would the pipes that carry our drinking water. Imagine traveling on safe bridges, safer roads, and drinking water that doesn't have toxins in it, that would be so grand.
The Republicans balked at those items, wanting them done as they've been done for decades. Piecemeal, with band aids here and there. As for the drinking water, they feel if Americans want safe drinking water, they can go and buy it in stores. As for internet access for more rural areas, they feel the internet is a luxury, despite it becoming a needed tool in dealing with daily life. As they had done during Obama's administration, the GOP has stated their mission isn't to help govern the nation for better it, it's to strictly obstruct anything that Biden wants to enact. Whereas with Obama, they brazenly spoke of their plans in open public, with Biden they've taken a different approach.
Enter Joe Manchin. And let us meet Joe Manchin, shall we? Manchin is the conservative's conservative. He objected to ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the military, an act that made is possible for the military to dismiss a soldier for being part of the LBGT community. He's opposed universal health care, supported in removing funding from Planned Parenthood, and embraced Donald Trump's immigration policies. Manchin, who gets the bulk of his donations from the coal industry, has spoken out against moving from coal as an energy source. Manchin has also stood against any raises to the minimum wage. Manchin truly living his reputation as the most conservative democrat in the senate.
Manchin had a rather frosty relationship with President Obama, but found a kinship with President Trump. He supported Trump's immigration policies, and urged Trump to act on companies that move base of operations overseas in order to move to counties where the company can pay lower wages and not have to worry about health care.
Now this isn't a complete burial of Manchin. Yeah, he contradicted himself when he voted to allow the Dodd-Frank banking laws to be eased. However, he has been in favor stricter gun control laws, to the point where the NRA went from considering Manchin and ally to launching attack ads against him. And he's demanded more attention to the plight of homeless children.
Yet when push comes to shove, Manchin typically retreats and aligns himself with Republicans. He's sold his vote essentially to the industries that make their money on coal production. The Build Back Better plan may have a high price tag, no one is going to dispute that. However, when you allow something to fall into disrepair long enough, it becomes increasingly expensive to fix it. The price tag for the Build Back Better act is a result of our direct inaction. And if we keeping kicking the can down the road, we'll come to a point where we simply won't have the resources to address the issue.
A recent infrastructure report card graded 11,200 out of 45,000 bridges in the United States as being in serious or worse condition. 1,668 are in critical condition, while 440 are listed as in imminent failure. There are close to 617,000 bridges overall in the United States, many that are over 50 years old. Some estimations say it will cost $125 billion dollars to give the bridges the needed repairs. Reports call for a 58% increase in spending on repairing the nations bridges. Oh, don't worry, it's still doable if we stay the course. It will take until 2071 for the bridges to be repaired and made safe for travel. Which means that it will not happen in the lifetime of anyone reading this blog. rather frightening when you think about. Your children traveling on bridges that in the future are only going to get worse.
Of course, if Joe Manchin were to cast aside his concerns and see the bigger picture, that could all change. However, Joe Manchin in the case of infrastructure is not a big picture type, has we've clearly seen. Not long after Manchin came out against the Build Back Better act, Goldman Sachs cut the U.S. economic forecast. They reasoned that a failure to pass the bill would have a negative impact on growth expectations. Machin's no vote resulting in consequences he clearly didn't see nor anticipate.
Joe Manchin clearly is not seeing the Build Back Better project beyond the price tag. His opposition to spending in some parts will affect infrastructure. He's delivering a blow to President Biden's administration that the Republicans can salivate over and use against the president as they attempt to take back the senate. And it will only serve to give them fodder as they seek to make Biden a one-term president, the first democrat to serve just one term since President Carter. Manchin has wavered if he was going to switch parties and become a Republican. At this point its academic and he may as well switch sides because he's shown great sympathy for their agenda. In this holiday season, Joe Manchin has been the best present the Republicans could ask for. And Manchin has, ironically, delivered coal to President Biden's holiday stocking.
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