Opinion · Lead
The infrastructure bill didn't fail. The Senate did.
Four votes stood between this country and the bridges, broadband, and bus depots we've been promised for a decade. Here is the receipt for what we paid in deadlock — and who signed it.
Four votes. That is the entire distance between the country we were promised in 2021 and the one we actually got. Four senators, in a chamber of one hundred, decided on Tuesday afternoon that the bridges could keep rusting, the broadband could keep buffering, and the bus depots could keep waiting for a coat of paint they were budgeted for during the Obama administration. If you have ever returned a defective appliance, you understand the moral structure of what just happened. You paid for something. It did not work. You went back to the store. The manager said the warranty had expired, the receipt was invalid, and besides, the product was working as designed.
Support the Desk
If you'd like the management to keep filing complaints, you can
leave a tip. No subscriptions. No paywall.
Leave a tip → The Discussion
Reader discussion is closed for the soft launch period. We're
listening before we open the floor.
In the meantime, you can
file a complaint of your own
— the best ones run in tomorrow's edition.
Marisol Chen
— Marisol Chen writes about American politics. She has worked in two state legislatures and is unimpressed by most of what she has seen.