Extreme partisanship and conspiracy theorizing in an election year cast doubt on whether Congress will approve the funds.
The fallen Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on March 31, 2024. A prompt rebuild would limit the economic damage from a disaster that has blocked both a major road artery and a major port.Soon after a huge container ship struck Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, bringing it down, President Joe Biden pledged that the federal government would “pay the entire cost of reconstructing” the bridge.
But that was a one-off. The Minnesota bridge collapse highlighted the decaying state of America’s infrastructure, and one might have expected the disaster to lead to real action, but it didn’t. President Barack Obama pleaded with Congress to approve broad increases in infrastructure spending and was able to sign a highway funding bill in 2015, but for the most part he was stymied by GOP opposition.
Extreme partisanship, which took hold long before Trump took control of the GOP, is part of the answer. It was clear through most of the Obama years that Republicans wanted to prevent good things from happening on a Democratic president’s watch. Under Obama, GOP legislators squeezed federal spending after they took control of the House, supposedly because they were worried about government debt, only to open up the taps once Trump took office.
MAGA politicians and media figures wasted no time after the bridge collapse trying to cast blame on the usual suspects, including funds meant to be spent on green energy and, in particular, diversity initiatives: In the immediate wake of the Key Bridge collapse, a Republican state legislator from Utah replied to a post on X, formerly Twitter, disparaging a member of the Maryland Port Commission, writing, “This is what happens when you have Governors who prioritize diversity over the wellbeing...
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