Amid all of the Trump controversies (some real and some imagined) and typical Washington D.C. party bickering, until recently there were two issues where the new administration enjoyed some level of bipartisan support in Congress: infrastructure spending and debt ceiling increases. That said, as we pointed out yesterday (see "Democrats Plot Debt Ceiling Fight And Government Shut Down To Thwart Trump Tax Cuts"), the Democrats have already started to publicly back away from a "clean" debt ceiling increase, an issue they repeatedly argued vehemently in favor of during the Obama years.
Now, it also looks as though increased infrastructure spending, typically a liberal fun bag of taxpayer funded handouts to overpaid public contractors, is also starting to lose support from Democrats. Per The Hill:
Infrastructure legislation has long been billed as one of the few things that could receive broad bipartisan support this Congress, with Trump at one point calling Democrats “desperate” for such an initiative.
But Trump’s sinking approval ratings, his polarizing tweets and his administration’s move to block oversight requests from the minority party have further eroded Democrats’ appetite to work with the president on one of his chief campaign promises.
“The president doesn’t make it any easier on himself,” said Democratic strategist Brad Bannon. “He’s going to have a hard time getting Democratic votes.”
The White House formally launched its $1 trillion infrastructure push this week with a string of events aimed at ramping up support.
Shocking, we know.
The crux of the Democrats' 'concerns', in addition to a natural predisposition to oppose everything that comes out of the White House, is centered around plans to privatize certain components of infrastructure spending. Afterall, why return power to ordinary Americans when Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi can allocated taxpayer money so much more efficiently?
"Trump’s ‘infrastructure week’ appears to be little more than a Trojan Horse for undermining workers’ wages and handing massive tax breaks to billionaires and corporations,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement.
“Trump’s ideas for privatizing Air Traffic Control — which recycle a tired Republican plan that both sides of the aisle have rejected — would hand control of one of our nation’s most important public assets to special interests and the big airlines.”
Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) took to the Senate floor to bash the plan, while his office blasted out a fact sheet seeking to rebut claims that the administration has made about efforts to upgrade the country’s infrastructure.
“Privatization, whether it’s for the construction of roads and bridges or in aviation, often leaves the average American with the short end of the stick and gives big corporations way too much power,” Schumer said.
“If this week is all about privatization, it will be another broken promise that President Trump made to the working people of America.”
“A private-sector-driven infrastructure plan means tolls, tolls, tolls — paid by average working Americans,” Schumer said...which we guess is worse than taxes, taxes, taxes?
Luckily, while Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are forced to create policy-based excuses to justify their hypocrisy, Democratic strategist Brad Bannon offered up an alternative explanation for Democrats' recent opposition to things they've previously supported which we suspect is somewhat closer to the truth, namely they simply don't want to work with Trump.
“The reality is, it’s hard to convince anybody to do anything when you have a 36 percent job approval rating, because no one fears you."
“If Democrats win in Georgia 6, it’s going to be a lot harder for the president to get them to go along with anything."
And, just like that, a new opposition party has officially arrived.