Yglesias has an updated breakdown on the infra spending. He also agrees transportation infra is good or adequate as it is. In this case, he uses it to counter McConnell's claim that it “is not about rebuilding America’s backbone. Less than 6% of this massive proposal goes to roads and bridges.” America's "crumbling" roads and bridges are fine Let's do the broadband and grid and water stuff instead
Even accepting the arguments that our roads and bridges aren't quite so dire there are still many what the piece above calls "hard construction projects" that are needed. We've seen in recent months dams failing and grids going down. People living in Houston knows that major flooding is a frequent and on going problem. Along pretty every US Coast erosion is getting more serious even as there is much more construction and population along coasts. Roads and bridges are the most obvious part of our infrastructure but are only a small part of the infrastructure of this country.
Yep. Infra has become an overloaded term, and I thought it was interesting how it was used as the narrative changes. Devil is in the details but tl;dr the answers in bullet points tyvm
These are items put into the bill so they can be removed later so dolts like you will feel like you won something.
Childcare / Seniorcare homes are legitimate facilities that fall under infrastructure, paid leave ... is probably a liberal use of her poetic sense for the word infrastructure. Never the less it's our absence of parental leave, sick leave, is one of the most despicable **** stains on this nation, so **** it I'm fine with her poetry.
If we reformed to fillibuster we could create seperate bills for these policy desires I whole heartily agree with and pass them successfully without reconciliation.
At least with reconciliation they have to at least show an effort the government will pay for it. Even if it's 15 yr projections...
I’ve been working a ton with companies out of India this year and the senior care situation there has become a catastrophe with the changes in their culture that have changed the dynamic completely. I think there’s a case to be made that senior and child care is pretty important to have decent infrastructure planning around. If left to the private market you’ll see what is happening now in India with outrageous price gouging and inhumane practices when profit is your only motive. Does it need to be in this bill though... no I don’t think so. Do we need a bill though on senior care infrastructure planning especially with the Boomers coming of age?? Yes. Pretty soon too.
The Silver Tsunami will pick up in the next 5-10 years, and I think they would've already downgraded to smaller homes more often if residential real estate wasn't melting up. They own more than 60% of housing among different generations. Zillow is predicting slack soon, but who knows where housing prices will be in this market... As much as I like labeling boomers, they're definitely split between haves and have nots. Those depending upon social security and pensions to live paycheck to paycheck are going to be the face of future welfare spending. The others who aren't dependent upon high yielding pension funds, the same funds crowding out families for houses, because they planned well or have amassed high quality equity will be the group targeted by younger politicians who can justifiably claim that most of the monetary intervention in the last 15 years has greatly benefitted the Boomers. I guess taxing the latter is a form of "punishing success", but bailing out the former can be spun into "rewarding laziness and poor planning" as we mortgage our future's QoL yet again. Interesting times, but I guess it's a topic for people who still vote.
Agreed. We have have both an increasing senior demographic and a large younger generation in millennials and gen z. The US has some pretty favorable demographics compared to our developed peers that could use some investment in (childcare). We need to reform entitlements while maintaining a level of care for our increasing senior population.
The municipal and state pensions are pretty concerning without some sort of grand compromise. Cities could use the relief to spend more money on the present and future.
It's gonna be a grand day when jerb stealing (amnestied) law breakers are the ones footing the bill for Boomer Bob.
