Jennifer Rubin Slams The Lamestream Media Coverage of The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal

Between Friday afternoon and Monday morning, the Washington D.C. media villagers engaged in ridiculous reporting about how President Biden’s coupling of the so-called “bipartisan infrastructure agreement” negotiated by the Gang of Ten, which he signed off on, with the much larger budget reconciliation human infrastructure package being hashed out by Democrats alone was a “Biden gaffe” (a favorite right-wing meme) and a “veto threat” that threatened GQP support for the “bipartisan infrastructure agreement,” the only infrastructure plan that the media villagers care about because of their fixation on their “bipartisan” narrative. They should all be ashamed of their ridiculous biased reporting.

The bipartisan negotiations were always predicated on a two-bill strategy. For Republicans to assert anything otherwise is simply a lie.

Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post breaks down this ridiculous biased reporting. The brouhaha over infrastructure infighting — a typical D.C. ‘process’ story — comes to naught:

The gap between what the mainstream, D.C.-based media covers and what concerns ordinary Americans is never greater than when the media decides to hyperventilate over a process story.

Take the case of a bipartisan deal to deliver the biggest infrastructure package in history, including favorite Democratic initiatives such as broadband expansion and the building of a half-million electric charging stations. Virtually all the political coverage for a couple of days involved whether President Biden had inadvertently spooked Republicans by suggesting he might sign the bipartisan deal only if paired with a “human” infrastructure bill advanced via reconciliation.

Some of the breathless Headlines:

Politico: White House scrambles to manage fallout of Biden’s ‘tandem’ remarks.

New York Times: ‘Not My Intent’: How Biden’s Impromptu Comments Upended a Political Win.

Washington Post: A bipartisan deal, an angry GOP reaction and the long road ahead for Biden’s agenda.

New York Times: Infrastructure Deal Is Back on Track After Biden’s Assurances.

Washington Post: Biden shift reassures GOP senators on bipartisan infrastructure deal.

The conversation then devolved into whether Republicans “felt double-crossed” or had simply realized Biden was on the verge of delivering both a bipartisan bill and a grab bag of social programs that thrilled progressives. Was Republicans’ horror feigned? (two-track legislation was always the plan). Were they merely miffed that their own plan — sign the bipartisan bill and hope the rest might die amid Democratic infighting — had fizzled? Headlines declared the deal in jeopardy.

Jason Easley at Politicususa blog gets it right. The White House Isn’t Buying The GOP’s BS Outrage On Infrastructure:

The White House knows that the Republican lie that they didn’t know there were two infrastructure bills is a performance politics.

[S]enior Democrats portrayed Republicans as feigning outrage over something they should have known to be the case all along.”

White House Press Secretary made the same point during her briefing on Friday.  Democrats have been publicly talking about a two-bill process for months.  Republicans knew all about it, but they were hoping that Democrats wouldn’t have the votes to pass the second part, the “human infrastructure” component, and President Biden would have to settle for their much smaller bill.

Jen Psaki shoots down the GOP lie that they didn't know about the second infrastructure bill, "That hasn't been a secret, he hasn't said it quietly or whispered it, he said it out loud to all of you as we have said many times from here. " pic.twitter.com/c6aMCzCqoN

— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) June 25, 2021

Press Secretary Psaki replied to Republican claims that they didn’t know about the two-track process, “You all have heard the president multiple times publicly that he was going to move these bills forward and wanted to move them forward in a parallel path, and that’s what’s happening. That hasn’t been a secret, he hasn’t said it quietly or whispered it, he said it out loud to all of you as we have said many times from here. I will say the president’s view is that the American people elected him to not lead on process but to get things done. The house and senate are going to determine the leaders in the House and Senate are going to determine the sequencing, and the timeline and he looks forward to both pieces of legislation.“

Now that it is clear that Democrats have the votes to pass this legislation with reconciliation, Republicans are caving to the outrage from within their own party and are looking to bail.

Republicans can’t handle the backlash from their supporters after they gave President Biden everything that he wanted in the bipartisan infrastructure deal. Democrats were never going to agree to dumping Biden’s priorities and settling for a single smaller bill.

The White House needs to fight for the bipartisan bill because that is how they will keep all 50 Democrats on board to pass the reconciliation bill, but they aren’t falling forthe Republican BS and remain focused on getting Biden‘s legislative priorities passed into law.

Let me be clear: There will not be a bipartisan infrastructure deal without a reconciliation bill that substantially improves the lives of working families and combats the existential threat of climate change. No reconciliation bill, no deal. We need transformative change NOW.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 27, 2021

Rubin continues:

If your eyes glaze over reading this, imagine how totally irrelevant all this sounded to any average voter who might simply want to know what exactly was in the bill.

Within 48 hours, the drama concluded. The White House released a statement over the weekend explaining that the president did not mean to threaten a veto of the bipartisan bill. He would leave the timing of the two bills to Democrats in Congress. (Hint: They can do exactly what Biden proposed, namely conclude an agreement among Democrats on reconciliation before both houses of Congress passed the bipartisan bill.) Of course Republicans could still try to defeat the human infrastructure bill, he declared. (Hint: They cannot stop reconciliation. Only Democrats can do that.)

By Sunday, even Republicans had had enough of the histrionics. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) declared on CNN, “I do trust the president. And he made very clear in the much larger statement that came out over the weekend, carefully crafted and thought through piece-by-piece, that if the infrastructure bill reaches his desk and it comes alone, he will sign it.” (Of course, Democratic congressional leaders will control the timing.)

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), on ABC’s “This Week,” echoed that sentiment about the two pieces of legislation. “I’m glad they’ve now been de-linked and it’s very clear that we can move forward with a bipartisan bill that’s broadly popular, not just among members of Congress, but the American people,” he said. “Over 87 percent of people who we’re told by one poll believe we ought to do a bipartisan infrastructure bill because it’s needed.” (Well, at least one Republican has read the polls.)

Portman also tweaked former president Donald Trump, who failed to get an infrastructure bill passed, and in music to the White House’s ears sang the praises of bipartisanship: “We are finally getting something done here that’s been talked about in Washington for decades.”

These two Republicans understand that all the jabbering was nonsensical and ultimately cosmetic. As soon as Republicans appeared with the president with an agreement in principle on the bipartisan bill, any threats thereafter were hollow. They would look like fools if they were to turn around and renege on a popular bill. And in any case, Democrats could put the whole thing into a single reconciliation package if they chose to.

In other words, if you took a few days off from the news cycle, you missed nothing of consequence. How did the media get all spun up over something that essentially turned out to be nothing?

First, the media has gotten into a bad habit of taking Republicans’ “outrage” and “sense of betrayal” seriously. The Republicans routinely play the mainstream lamestream media, which indulges them by creating controversy. “Biden may have blown it” banter filled the cable TV shows. Instead of closely examining whether Republicans’ outburst was illogical, and pointing out that any threats were empty, they ran with the story for days.

Second, the media seems reluctant to believe that Biden and some Republicans (very few, I grant you) do trust one another and do have overlapping concerns. The preferred story line — that Biden would sabotage a deal and that Republicans like Romney would walk away from it — suggested a fundamental lack of understanding of the personalities and motives of those involved. (The same cynicism about obtaining any bipartisan results permeated the campaign coverage and echoed in the “Haven’t you failed?” sort of questions as the infrastructure negotiations played out.)

Skepticism is always warranted. But the cynical stance — we’re too in-the-know to believe Biden might be onto something — often leads to perverse coverage that plays up “crises” and acknowledges only quietly when they’re resolved.

Finally, the media too often shows a disturbing level of disinterest in substance. Had the media gone through the bipartisan deal and recalled that earlier in June, the Senate had already passed a huge bill — the United States Innovation and Competition Act — to invest $250 billion in research and development and strengthen our supply chains in an effort to counter China’s economic ascendance (elements in the original American Jobs Plan), they might have reported that Biden was actually on the verge of attaining a total $1.45 trillion for the infrastructure package ($250 billion for the China bill, plus $1.2 trillion for the bipartisan infrastructure plan). The potential amount of economic investment — an extraordinary number following the $1.9 trillion covid-relief bill, the American Rescue Plan — is astonishing by any measure (economic or political).

Perhaps now that this process story has receded, we will get some in-depth coverage of the economic ramifications of the deal for various industries and regions, what implications it has for wage growth, whether it will affect income inequality and what it portends for climate change. That sort of serious policy coverage would be most welcome.

Rubin’s colleague Greg Sargent adds, The pathetic new GOP tantrum over Biden’s plans is full of empty threats:

Republicans are pretending to be very, very angry about President Biden’s newly-announced plans to pursue infrastructure and jobs proposals on two tracks — one bipartisan, the other via a simple majority “reconciliation” vote.

But behind this display of fake histrionics lies a very real trap, one designed to bait Democrats into turning on one another.

In case any Democrats are tempted to take this bait, don’t. The only response to GOP anger is for Democrats to remain solidly unified, though this situation also illustrates how challenging this will prove.

Biden and House Democratic leaders have announced that they will not pass a bipartisan Senate bill on infrastructure — one in keeping with the newly-reached bipartisan deal — until the Senate completes a second reconciliation package advancing progressive priorities.

[T]he GQP threat here is that Democrats must drop plans to pass a reconciliation package or forget about getting a bipartisan package first. This is empty bluster sitting atop a pile of baloney.

Nothing but nonsense

Republicans have long known that Democrats would converge on this endgame. Indeed, Democrats publicly vowed for months to proceed on “two tracks.”

While working toward a bipartisan compromise on bricks-and-mortar infrastructure, Democrats would craft a reconciliation package containing Biden’s other priorities: Child supports, paid family and medical leave, and investments in education, health care and climate.

If the bipartisan deal were reached (as it now has been), Democrats would pass the reconciliation piece by a simple majority. If the bipartisan deal falls apart, they’d pass everything that way. Republicans have always known that even with a bipartisan deal, Democrats will do a lot more alone.

Now Republicans think they can bluff Democrats into killing a whole host of their most cherished priorities as a precondition for their support for something way more modest that largely consists of previously existing highway and covid-19 relief funding? No way.

This is why the GOP threat is an empty one. If Republicans do sink the bipartisan deal, Democrats still have the option of passing a large package by themselves, via reconciliation.

Unity at all costs

But still, this will require Democrats to remain united. The GOP strategy seems designed to spook moderates — the threat that Republicans might pull their support is supposed to turn them against the left and the idea of doing something via reconciliation.

But if Republicans sink the bipartisan bill, it’s obvious that the Democratic strategy is only their pretext and they would have done so anyway. And if moderates do turn on the idea of reconciliation, this will alienate the left, imperiling passage of the bipartisan bill to begin with.

At the same time, if progressives oppose the bipartisan bill and that’s one reason it fails, that will give moderate senators like Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) a way to walk away from doing a reconciliation-only package later.

This is why Biden and House Democrats are vowing to pass the bipartisan bill only once the Senate completes a reconciliation one — because keeping the left on board for the bipartisan bill is crucial.

And from the other side, if enough progressive senators support the bipartisan bill to enable it to pass the Senate, the moderates should be expected to support a robust reconciliation package.

In the end, for this tightrope walk to work, if the bipartisan bill fails Republicans alone must be seen as the ones who killed it. That has a chance of keeping Manchin and Sinema on board for a big reconciliation bill.

Here’s the big picture. For the party to remain unified behind this strategy, it will be important to see both bills as part of one grand effort. And, crucially, the reconciliation piece must not be seen as a series of priorities that only the left wants.

Indeed, a big reconciliation package — whether with a bipartisan bill, or alone — is central to the success of Biden and the whole Democratic Party.

The stakes are extraordinarily high

For one thing, getting this done will decide the core question of whether Biden and Democrats use their majorities to act ambitiously on climate change. As a good New York Times piece details, reconciliation will be the only way to get a national “clean energy standard” that will transition power companies to generating electricity only by renewable energy, as well as massive investments enabling those alternate sources to keep expanding.

What’s more, getting a reconciliation package will also be critical to ensuring an equitable recovery at a time of great public awareness of the dire need to rebalance the economy. That opportunity can’t be squandered.

Democrats keep telling us that passing a robust legislative agenda is central to defusing rising authoritarianism and showing that democracy still works. And so, while the Republican threats are empty ones, to succeed, Democrats will have to hang together. At stake is a lot more than just their majorities.