President Joe Biden needled former President Donald Trump by celebrating the Senate’s passage of his $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, even though the package still faces legislative hurdles in the House.
“After years and years of ‘infrastructure week,’ we’re on the cusp of an ‘infrastructure decade’ that I truly believe will transform America,” Biden said in the White House East Room Tuesday.
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Biden joked that the chattering political class had “prematurely reported” the “death” of his proposal. He similarly pushed back on those who doubted bipartisanship was possible in Washington, saying that the idea had been “characterized as a relic of an earlier age” and thanking Republican senators who supported the measure.
“America, this is how we truly build back better,” he said, parroting his 2020 slogan. “This is a moment that goes beyond the headlines, beyond the partisan soundbites, the culture of instant outrage, disinformation and conflict as entertainment. This is about us doing the real hard work of governing.”
Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who introduced her boss at the event, referred to economic inequities exacerbated by the pandemic.
“It will mean people in our nation won’t have to drink water from lead pipes or go to a fast-food parking lot to get high-speed internet,” Harris said.
Harris also reiterated that the infrastructure framework would not mean higher taxes for those earning more than $400,000 a year.
The White House ceremony precedes the bill clearing the House. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated she will not take up the measure without its $3.5 trillion social welfare and climate Democrats-only counterpart. And liberal Democrats have promised to press for as much of their far-left agenda as they have included, despite their party’s slim majorities in both chambers.
But Biden at least appeared confident on Tuesday that they would “get it done.”
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“It’s the exact same plan I ran on. We’ll see. I continue to be an optimist,” he said. “I think we will get enough Democrats to vote for it. And I think that the House will eventually put two bills on my desk.”
