What's the matter with infrastructure?
Last week, the House passed President Biden’s top policy agenda by pushing along the Build Back Better bill. Build Back Better is the so-called social infrastructure bill that has been shaped to use budget reconciliation in the Senate and thus take a simple majority to pass. BBB has been in the making since before Biden was elected and is part of a two pronged approach to ambitious policy making for the Democratic controlled Capitol Hill. The first part of that approach, a $1.2 trillion investment in roads, bridges, broadband, public transit, rail, airports, seaports, waterways, green public transportation, and cleaning up waste sites, was also passed last week. That bill included not only Democratic lawmakers but also Republicans in both the House and Senate. Such a feat should be the lead of every news story for the next month as much needed money is finally being invested in America’s lagging and decaying infrastructure. However, news of the passage of such a large bill was little more than a blip. Every outlet covered it, of course, but most were still too excited to talk about the absolute shellacking that Democrats faced in off year elections in Virginia and New Jersey.
While all this is going on, President Biden’s approval rating has sunk to its lowest point since he entered office. Obviously presidential approval can be based on a number of things and Biden’s is no different. The messy withdrawal from Afghanistan, a slowing of vaccination rates and the surge of the delta variant, inflation driving up the cost of consumer goods, and the pace at which his signature legislation has slogged through Congress have probably all affected his sagging numbers. The passage of the first major leg of his policy agenda appears to have almost no effect on his approval rating (although there is obviously still time). If we were to take Americans at their word, we should think that passing a major piece of bipartisan legislation is exactly what they want. Time and time again, Americans say they want Congress to be more bipartisan. This usually (read the last two decades) runs up against the reality that Congress is hopelessly partisan and that each party recognizes the political cost of giving the party in power any policy ‘wins.’ So the passage of hard infrastructure by this Congress and President via bipartisan support is really, truly astonishing. Yet the story just isn’t coming together.
Part of the fault in why Americans don’t know or care about the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act should be doled out to the Democratic party. This, as I mentioned, should be considered a big policy win, the kind of thing you buy ads for and go home to your district to brag to constituents about all the great work you are doing. Instead, Democrats are too caught up in the wrangling over the second half of the policy agenda. While there is nothing wrong in wanting to prioritize the passage of the second bill (as it does include many more measures which average Americans will be able to directly feel) the complete lack of fanfare over the hard infrastructure bill is nearing political malpractice.
A strong majority of Americans support the bill. And, while some have pointed out that the last two presidents’ major bills didn’t help them at the midterms (Obama with the Affordable Care Act and Trump with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act), both of those bills were broadly unpopular by the time they actually passed through congress. Furthermore, neither of those achievements were bipartisan, the thing Americans say they want the government to do. Democrats should be making every victory lap they possibly can afford while still finding time to work out their differences on the Build Back Better bill. Unfortunately, that fanfare seems to be near non-existent.
Finally, the rollout of the bill seems to be purposely nondescript. In writing this piece I realized that, while I knew about the bill, it’s contents, and its passage, I had no idea what it was called! That’s awful marketing, from the President on down. It also opens up avenues for right-wing media and politicians to re-dub the bill whichever phrase they think sounds worst (and you can bet that branding will stick).
However, it’s not just the Democrats themselves who deserve the blame, so too do media companies and Congressional journalists. The obsessive desire to cover the most controversial story of the day led to lackluster and quickly forgotten coverage of the infrastructure bill’s passage. Cable news was particularly nonchalant in their coverage, preferring to cover the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, a teenager charged with killing two protesters in 2020. While most major newspapers covered the story, the coverage was fleeting. Other, more conflictual news stories quickly overtook what should have been the most significant news story of the month if not year: Congress worked together to pass major bipartisan legislation.
Of course the American news media is a for-profit enterprise and are drawn to the classic maxims of conflict over complexity. A fight is always more interesting than compromise or cooperation. It’s probably the same reason why countless news stories have been written and produced about the difficulties in the Democratic caucus on passing BBB. Those same stories have overshadowed the success of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. It’s also not the media’s job to praise legislation or behave like some sort of policy cheerleader. However, media figures increasingly decry the state of American democracy, worry about rampant partisanship/polarization, or long for compromise and moderation. Yet, when a bill which works explicitly to reverse the previously mentioned problems passes, there is little to no lasting coverage of the achievement.
When all news stories are cast around conflict, it’s little wonder we’ve seen dramatic increases in political conflict. If anything, the passage of the infrastructure bill proves that there is almost no benefit to working with the other party (outside of the obvious positives that can come from such legislation). Politically, you’ll receive no benefits from the voters you need to impress and from the media you’ll get so little attention that voters would be forgiven for not realizing you’ve passed anything.
If Democrats can pass Built Back Better, they’ll most likely receive much more news coverage and political fanfare. This is partially because the base of the Democratic party is more excited about that bill and partly because the media will get to cast the partisan bill as being an affront to Republicans in Congress. Many of the bill’s constituent parts are popular among the public. However, the bill also runs the risk of losing support after passage much like the affordable care act. Americans mostly don’t know what’s in it. Which is excusable considering the confusing wrangling wrought by Senate contrarians Joe Manchin (WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ).
If and when BBB passes it will be on Democrats to forcefully and repeatedly let the American public know what the bill does for them and why they should thank Democrats for those benefits. Unfortunately, if the hard infrastructure bill tells us anything, Democrats will fail to control the narrative, the media will concentrate on the price tag and the partisan nature of the bill, and Republican pundits and politicians will unify around a pithy, negative naming which tars the bill as wasteful and dangerous.
