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President Joe Biden has reason to be hopeful this week as negotiations for his proposed infrastructure stimulus appear to be advancing in the right direction.
After meeting with Democratic senators Chuck Schumer (New York) and Joe Manchin (West Virginia), it looks like a deal could be reached in a matter of days and signed into law soon after. It’s been a tumultuous last few months for President Biden’s Build Back Better initiative.
Political turmoil within the Democratic Party between moderate congress members and more radical progressive members within the party have seen the initial budget of $3.5 trillion watered down to around $2 trillion.
With this reduction, programs like free community college and a prolonged child tax credit for poorer Americans have been substantially reduced, if not eliminated entirely. However, it’s hoped that programs intended to repair America’s decaying public road networks will make it through in one piece.
The U.S. has one of the worst-rated public road infrastructures of any first-world nation in the last 20 years. Issues like deteriorating conditions of America’s interstate system and a desperate need to maintain America’s thousands of roads and bridges are one area that negotiators in Washington D.C. have largely left alone, while laying waste to other popular social programs.
According to NPR, The American Society of Civil Engineers gives the nation's infrastructure a grade of C-minus on its quadrennial infrastructure report card. Up from the abysmal D-minus grade the organization ascertained four years ago.
Still, this improvement is nowhere near enough to make a tangible difference to the condition of America’s roads, highways, bridges, and tunnels. Many of which are in dire need of repairs before they become unsafe to drive across.
Only time will tell whether the portion of the $2 trillion budget for President Biden’s plan will be sufficient enough to improve the near-failing conditions of America’s road infrastructure. With so many critical social programs falling by the wayside in the bill, it would be a small silver lining if at least one of the countless issues plaguing American politics had at least been attempted to be solved.
Political turmoil within the Democratic Party between moderate congress members and more radical progressive members within the party have seen the initial budget of $3.5 trillion watered down to around $2 trillion.
With this reduction, programs like free community college and a prolonged child tax credit for poorer Americans have been substantially reduced, if not eliminated entirely. However, it’s hoped that programs intended to repair America’s decaying public road networks will make it through in one piece.
The U.S. has one of the worst-rated public road infrastructures of any first-world nation in the last 20 years. Issues like deteriorating conditions of America’s interstate system and a desperate need to maintain America’s thousands of roads and bridges are one area that negotiators in Washington D.C. have largely left alone, while laying waste to other popular social programs.
According to NPR, The American Society of Civil Engineers gives the nation's infrastructure a grade of C-minus on its quadrennial infrastructure report card. Up from the abysmal D-minus grade the organization ascertained four years ago.
Still, this improvement is nowhere near enough to make a tangible difference to the condition of America’s roads, highways, bridges, and tunnels. Many of which are in dire need of repairs before they become unsafe to drive across.
Only time will tell whether the portion of the $2 trillion budget for President Biden’s plan will be sufficient enough to improve the near-failing conditions of America’s road infrastructure. With so many critical social programs falling by the wayside in the bill, it would be a small silver lining if at least one of the countless issues plaguing American politics had at least been attempted to be solved.
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