13 Republican Congressmen Save Pelosi, Biden on $1.2T Infrastructure Vote

 

Six Democrats voted against the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Plan (BIF) late Friday night, which should have killed the legislation. Instead, 13 Republicans rode to Nancy Pelosi’s rescue and voted yes. The BIF passed the Senate nearly two months ago, so the legislation will head straight to the White House for the President’s signature.

Here are the Republicans for Pelosi:

  • Rep. Don Bacon (R–NE)
  • Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R–PA)
  • Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R–NY)
  • Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R–OH)
  • Rep. John Katko (R–NY)
  • Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R–IL)
  • Rep. Nicole Malliatokis (R–NY)
  • Rep. David McKinley (R–WV)
  • Rep. Tom Reed (R–NY)
  • Rep. Chris Smith (R–NJ)
  • Rep. Fred Upton (R–MI)
  • Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R–NJ)
  • Rep. Don Young (R–AK)

Despite Democrats not having the necessary support, the final vote was 228-206 thanks to these 13 Republicans. Each should be primaried, at least those who aren’t retiring. And it’s time for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R–CA) to be removed as House Minority Leader since he has demonstrated brutal incompetence.

For the record, here are the six Democrats who voted against the bill:

  • Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D–NY)
  • Rep. Cori Bush (D–MO)
  • Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–NY)
  • Rep. Ilhan Omar (D–MN)
  • Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D–MA)
  • Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D–MI)
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  1. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    James Salerno (View Comment):
    The Union Pacific and Central Pacific both went bankrupt as soon as they were completed, were inefficient, and corrupt.

    The same thing happened with man-made canals, here. 

    Remember the Global Crossing Internet thing? I would like to think that was 100% private money but I doubt it.

    Now the big thing is rural broadband, which I call communist broadband. The problem is broadband requires density which they don’t have. So what this means is, every asset and almost every single business in these areas is worth less now. So they are going to fix this with communism. I’m not saying they should or shouldn’t do this, but this is a huge political mess in Minnesota for obvious reasons. 

    • #61
  2. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    Remember when Republicans used to pretend to be fiscally conservative? I hope their voters enjoy the mileage tax.

    This ship sailed over two decades ago. Stop worrying about spending. If they actually ever did anything the economy would collapse.

    • #62
  3. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    California Governor Ronald Reagan spearheaded the building and expansion of the Foothills Freeway in Los Angeles during his two terms from 1967 to 1975; if freeways were good enough for Reagan, they are good enough for me.

    This isn’t arguing facts; it’s an appeal to authority.

    And Reagan is the ultimate authority.

    He’s dead.

    So he can’t comment on whether he would support this Porkulus.

    • #63
  4. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    California Governor Ronald Reagan spearheaded the building and expansion of the Foothills Freeway in Los Angeles during his two terms from 1967 to 1975; if freeways were good enough for Reagan, they are good enough for me.

    This isn’t arguing facts; it’s an appeal to authority.

    And Reagan is the ultimate authority.

    I think I just figured out why you never say anything original or detailed about public policy. 

    • #64
  5. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    The Cloaked Gaijin (View Comment):

    Rep. Don Bacon (R–NE)

    Et tu, Nebraska?

    I guess the guy named Bacon likes pork.

    Bacon represents NE-2, the Omaha area. I am sure they need more roads and better bridges over the Missouri River. Also, a new by-pass is being built south of Lincoln near by, and who knows, maybe he wants to be governor or senator some day.

    Ah. So I guess it’s time to buy some votes.

    Government Is How We Steal From Each Other™

    • #65
  6. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    The Girlie Show (View Comment):

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.:

    For the record, here are the six Democrats who voted against the bill:

    • Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–NY)
    • Rep. Ilhan Omar (D–MN)
    • Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D–MI)

    This makes me curious to know on what grounds these three opposed the bill.

    It wasn’t communist enough. I’m dead serious.

    • #66
  7. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    GlennAmurgis (View Comment):
    At what point is the debt going to be addressed

    This ship has sailed. They are going to force inflation and hopefully society will hold together. I am dead serious.

    • #67
  8. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Nobody is going to control spending anymore. We screwed this up decades ago. I have said this over and over. It’s even worse than I thought. Pay the dollar for this transcript.

     

    https://www.realvision.com/shows/mike-green-in-conversation/videos/is-the-golden-age-of-liberal-capitalism-over

     

     

     

    • #68
  9. Gazpacho Grande' Coolidge
    Gazpacho Grande'
    @ChrisCampion

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):
    If Adam Kinzinger was any more of a tool, he’d have “Stanley” stamped on his butt.

    Yeah, Adam Kinzinger who only voted to impeach Trump because of his “deeply held conservative principles”… just voted with Democrats on a two trillion dollar infrastructure bill that only spends about $500B on actual infrastructure.

    Maybe the Republicans will run on Repealing and Replacing it.

    And they have the full-throated support of rock-ribbed conservatives like Gary.

    Instead of calling me names, why don’t you stick to the issues? The Code of Conduct prohibits:

    • Personal attacks and ad hominem arguments against people, groups, or classes. Public figures may be exempt from this rule, provided the comment otherwise adheres to the CoC.
    • Defamatory, gossipy, or rude comments. Imagine you’re a guest at a dinner party with a group of seemingly nice people you don’t know… how would you handle yourself?

    I argued for the infrastructure bill on its merits. Let’s compete in the world of facts and not sling mud at each other.

    Mommy!  The kids are picking on me again!  MOMMY!

    See the source image

    • #69
  10. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    Viruscop (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Viruscop (View Comment):

    Trump talked up infrastructure for years but did nothing.

    It turns out that Biden is a greater builder than Trump.

    Why Trump did not do this deal is beyond me. He could have gotten $10 billion to finish the dang wall also.

    Trump can’t actually build anything.

    James Salerno (View Comment):
    This is why the Confederacy was right to ban internal improvements at the central level. Not that they were ever permitted under the United States constitution in the first place, but who cares about all that boring originalism stuff, right?

    And the Confederacy collapsed. Maybe if it had spent more on infrastructure it would still exist, but happily it collapsed.

    Actually, the lack of infrastructure was the Confederacy’s greatest asset- with few roads or railroads to use an invading army faced a logistical nightmare. That is why many European military experts thought the South would be able to hold of the Union army. It is also why Sherman’s March to the Sea was such strategic surprise-he abandoned the logistical tail and thereby was able to move rapidly & deeply thru the South. His move not only crippled the South’s remaining breadbasket but it served as a warning to the South as to what attempting to wage a guerrilla war would do to their property. Sherman also proved the Southern aristocrats were highly self motivated- b/c the best way to stop him was a scorched earth strategy in front of his advancing army (since he was “living off the land”)-but few of them would burn their own crops, b/c they hoped to be able to make a killing selling their produce in the ensuing shortages after Sherman passed by. He should that the bluster of the Deep South aristocracy was just that- they would fight until the last poor white guy in VA & Nc died-but would not risk their own property for the cause. The slaves could see this as well-the rich white slaveholders (NB-they were a “natural aristocracy”)couldn’t stop an army of working class guys from the North-despite all their claims of natural superiority.

    • #70
  11. Viruscop Member
    Viruscop
    @Viruscop

    Another reminder that the Tea Party is dead. 

    • #71
  12. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Viruscop (View Comment):
    Another reminder that the Tea Party is dead. 

    Yes it is. 

     

     

     

    • #72
  13. Hang On Member
    Hang On
    @HangOn

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    The thing no one seems to be bringing up is that the Federal Fuel tax already raises over $300 Billion every year that is supposed to be spent on maintaining and improving national infrastructure. So, what happened to that money? Why wasn’t that used to maintain and improve infrastructure.

    Spoiler: Congress squandered it so now they’re piling another two trillion onto the debt.

    That’s what those thirteen Republicans voted for.

    It’s more like $40 billion. 

    • #73
  14. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    James Salerno (View Comment):

    This is why the Confederacy was right to ban internal improvements at the central level. Not that they were ever permitted under the United States constitution in the first place, but who cares about all that boring originalism stuff, right?

    The Confederacy was wrong on that one. The Republican Party came from the Whigs (“We Hope In God”), and Republicans spearheaded the uniting of the continent with the transcontinental railroad during Lincoln’s terms, beginning in 1863 and completing after his death in 1869. https://www.google.com/search?q=transcontinental+railroad&rlz=1C1OKWM_enUS925US925&oq=transcontinen&aqs=chrome.0.0i433i512j69i57j46i199i433i465i512j0i512l7.8463j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8. Teddy Roosevelt built the Panama Canal. And Ike was the father of the Interstate Highway System.

    Gary,

    You seem to conflate “desirable” with “Constitutional.”

    • #74
  15. I Walton Member
    I Walton
    @IWalton

    The arguments don’t hold water.  Infrastructure should be locally funded and locally selected.  If  Federal it will be loaded with  pork.  Good lord that’s the whole point.  Local stuff has pork as well and local folks have to fight over it as well.  Folks continue with the fiction that folks who live in Washington, Bureaucrats and permanent representatives focus on the tens of thousands of towns and cities and rural areas that constitute the US.  They do not.   

    • #75
  16. Hang On Member
    Hang On
    @HangOn

    The Cloaked Gaijin (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Under Baltimore, the almost 150 year old B&P tunnel is so tight that the Amtrak trains must slow to 30 miles per hour to transit it.

    Everything Wrong with American Infrastructure in One Tunnel

    The current tunnel, which was built by a bunch of guys with pickaxes and dynamite in the 1870s, took two years to complete. And though it’s outdated now, it has lasted 148 years, so it’s not like they did a terrible job. Somehow, despite all the technological developments that have completely transformed our lives since the 1870s, it now takes six times longer to build its replacement. And $2.7 billion for the new two-mile-long replacement tunnel comes out to $1.35 billion per mile. To put this in perspective, consider the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland. It opened in 2016 and cost about $12 billion. That’s a lot more than $2.7 billion, but the Gotthard Base Tunnel is the deepest tunnel in the world, bored through the Alps, and it’s 35 miles long. That comes out to a cost of $343 million per mile. So, for roughly a quarter of the cost per mile that it takes the United States to replace an existing tunnel that’s only a few dozen feet underground, the Swiss can build a completely new marvel of engineering through a mountain range. … American infrastructure is not crumbling, and there’s no nationwide crisis or emergency demanding a massive federal response. There is, however, a 148-year-old rail tunnel in Maryland that needs replacing. Funding that project should not require assent to a national political agenda, but our backward infrastructure funding process means it does. And our money-first, projects-later mentality means we end up spending lots of money on not a lot of projects.” — Dominic Pino, nationalreview.com

    https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/everything-wrong-with-american-infrastructure-in-one-tunnel/

     

    If you knew anything about building a structure under water with the interactions of soil and water versus drilling through a mountain, you might understand why it is so much more expensive on a per mile basis. The foundation of the structure is a huge cost. 

    • #76
  17. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Viruscop (View Comment):

    Another reminder that the Tea Party is dead.

    Well, it was stillborn.

    • #77
  18. Viruscop Member
    Viruscop
    @Viruscop

    MiMac (View Comment):

    Viruscop (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Viruscop (View Comment):

    Trump talked up infrastructure for years but did nothing.

    It turns out that Biden is a greater builder than Trump.

    Why Trump did not do this deal is beyond me. He could have gotten $10 billion to finish the dang wall also.

    Trump can’t actually build anything.

    James Salerno (View Comment):
    This is why the Confederacy was right to ban internal improvements at the central level. Not that they were ever permitted under the United States constitution in the first place, but who cares about all that boring originalism stuff, right?

    And the Confederacy collapsed. Maybe if it had spent more on infrastructure it would still exist, but happily it collapsed.

    Actually, the lack of infrastructure was the Confederacy’s greatest asset- with few roads or railroads to use an invading army faced a logistical nightmare. That is why many European military experts thought the South would be able to hold of the Union army. It is also why Sherman’s March to the Sea was such strategic surprise-he abandoned the logistical tail and thereby was able to move rapidly & deeply thru the South. His move not only crippled the South’s remaining breadbasket but it served as a warning to the South as to what attempting to wage a guerrilla war would do to their property. Sherman also proved the Southern aristocrats were highly self motivated- b/c the best way to stop him was a scorched earth strategy in front of his advancing army (since he was “living off the land”)-but few of them would burn their own crops, b/c they hoped to be able to make a killing selling their produce in the ensuing shortages after Sherman passed by. He should that the bluster of the Deep South aristocracy was just that- they would fight until the last poor white guy in VA & Nc died-but would not risk their own property for the cause. The slaves could see this as well-the rich white slaveholders (NB-they were a “natural aristocracy”)couldn’t stop an army of working class guys from the North-despite all their claims of natural superiority.

    It was a hinderance more than any help to the Confederacy. The limited amount of railroads meant that it was difficult to move troops rapidly between states. It also hindered trade between states. From what I understand, Mississippi rail wasn’t even the same gauge as the rest of the Confederacy, so there would be an interval where cargo would have to be shipped by animal-drawn wagons and placed on a new train.

    • #78
  19. Hang On Member
    Hang On
    @HangOn

    I Walton (View Comment):

    The arguments don’t hold water. Infrastructure should be locally funded and locally selected. If Federal it will be loaded with pork. Good lord that’s the whole point. Local stuff has pork as well and local folks have to fight over it as well. Folks continue with the fiction that folks who live in Washington, Bureaucrats and permanent representatives focus on the tens of thousands of towns and cities and rural areas that constitute the US. They do not.

    So there would be huge gaps in infrastructure in the middle of the country with small populations. Some plan.

    • #79
  20. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: Instead, 13 Republicans traitors rode to Nancy Pelosi’s rescue and voted yes.

    FIFY . . .

    • #80
  21. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Hang On (View Comment):

    I Walton (View Comment):

    The arguments don’t hold water. Infrastructure should be locally funded and locally selected. If Federal it will be loaded with pork. Good lord that’s the whole point. Local stuff has pork as well and local folks have to fight over it as well. Folks continue with the fiction that folks who live in Washington, Bureaucrats and permanent representatives focus on the tens of thousands of towns and cities and rural areas that constitute the US. They do not.

    So there would be huge gaps in infrastructure in the middle of the country with small populations. Some plan.

    We don’t know that. It could happen without central funding and authority. What we are doing now is going to end the hard way, anyway.

    • #81
  22. Hang On Member
    Hang On
    @HangOn

    I couldn’t disagree more with the O/P. My  criticism of McCarthy and the Republicans who voted against this is that it should have been sold as a nationalist plan for stitching the country together. As it is, they have turned it into a Biden victory rather than an American victory. Dumb.

    • #82
  23. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Hang On (View Comment):

    I couldn’t disagree more with the O/P. My criticism of McCarthy and the Republicans who voted against this is that it should have been sold as a nationalist plan for stitching the country together. As it is, they have turned it into a Biden victory rather than an American victory. Dumb.

    Everybody is too stupid and corrupt to make this happen.

    • #83
  24. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    Viruscop (View Comment):

    MiMac (View Comment):

    Viruscop (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Viruscop (View Comment):

    Trump talked up infrastructure for years but did nothing.

    It turns out that Biden is a greater builder than Trump.

    Why Trump did not do this deal is beyond me. He could have gotten $10 billion to finish the dang wall also.

    Trump can’t actually build anything.

    James Salerno (View Comment):
    This is why the Confederacy was right to ban internal improvements at the central level. Not that they were ever permitted under the United States constitution in the first place, but who cares about all that boring originalism stuff, right?

    And the Confederacy collapsed. Maybe if it had spent more on infrastructure it would still exist, but happily it collapsed.

    Actually, the lack of infrastructure was the Confederacy’s greatest asset- with few roads or railroads to use an invading army faced a logistical nightmare. That is why many European military experts thought the South would be able to hold of the Union army. It is also why Sherman’s March to the Sea was such strategic surprise-he abandoned the logistical tail and thereby was able to move rapidly & deeply thru the South. His move not only crippled the South’s remaining breadbasket but it served as a warning to the South as to what attempting to wage a guerrilla war would do to their property. Sherman also proved the Southern aristocrats were highly self motivated- b/c the best way to stop him was a scorched earth strategy in front of his advancing army (since he was “living off the land”)-but few of them would burn their own crops, b/c they hoped to be able to make a killing selling their produce in the ensuing shortages after Sherman passed by. He should that the bluster of the Deep South aristocracy was just that- they would fight until the last poor white guy in VA & Nc died-but would not risk their own property for the cause. The slaves could see this as well-the rich white slaveholders (NB-they were a “natural aristocracy”)couldn’t stop an army of working class guys from the North-despite all their claims of natural superiority.

    It was a hinderance more than any help to the Confederacy. The limited amount of railroads meant that it was difficult to move troops rapidly between states. It also hindered trade between states. From what I understand, Mississippi rail wasn’t even the same gauge as the rest of the Confederacy, so there would be an interval where cargo would have to be shipped by animal-drawn wagons and placed on a new train.

    bad infrastructure favored the defense- like Russia vs Napoleon & Hitler.  An invading army had to tie up a lot of resources to ensure supply- just look at the manpower required to garisson troops all the way back to their starting point-a huge drain on manpower.  Additionally, wagon trains require large amounts of fodder (an ox eats more than they can pull if they travel more than a couple of days). A defense force lives off their own land and doesn’t have to guard supplies & fear the local inhabitants. While the South had trouble shifting forces from the east & the west, the North had much greater trouble sustaining their troops in a hostile environment. The deeper the invasion, the greater the trouble as supply lines became further lengthened-all the while the enemy fell back on supportive territory. The South could also destroy infrastructure & supply as they fell back, thereby worsening the burden on the North.

    • #84
  25. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    MiMac (View Comment):
    Additionally, wagon trains require large amounts of fodder (an ox eats more than they can pull if they travel more than a couple of days).

    I once read a book entitled Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army.  I think the author concluded that a wagon train could last for seven days without foraging, then it would run out of fodder.  And, of course, if it carried seven days worth of fodder, it wasn’t carrying anything else.

    • #85
  26. genferei Member
    genferei
    @genferei

    Imagine a continent-spanning civilization split up into independent states without a centralized authority to borrow and spend on infrastructure, and coordinate the building of trans-border roads, canals, rail lines, bridges and tunnels. It would be anarchy. It would be impossible to get anything done. Which is why we need the Federal Government to handle infrastructure and why since the 19th century and to this day it is impossible to cross Europe by road and rail, bridge and tunnel.

    • #86
  27. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    I can tell you that the Minneapolis light rail is reducing national GDP now and forever. It would not have happened without the feds.

    • #87
  28. Victor Tango Kilo Member
    Victor Tango Kilo
    @VtheK

    genferei: Imagine a continent-spanning civilization split up into independent states without a centralized authority to borrow and spend on infrastructur

    Imagine thinking that payoffs to a Senator’s wife, furniture for the Department of Homeland Security, bike riding lessons for first responders, mystery slush funds for a left-wing son of a communist to spend as he pleases,  and 15 billion for the FCC were “infrastructure.”  Imagine an infrastructure bill with $600 Billion in  unaccountably mystery spending attached to it.

    Enjoy your mileage tax.

    • #88
  29. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Just for the record #88 has my name on a quote that I didn’t say. 

     

    • #89
  30. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    I Walton (View Comment):

    The arguments don’t hold water. Infrastructure should be locally funded and locally selected. If Federal it will be loaded with pork. Good lord that’s the whole point. Local stuff has pork as well and local folks have to fight over it as well. Folks continue with the fiction that folks who live in Washington, Bureaucrats and permanent representatives focus on the tens of thousands of towns and cities and rural areas that constitute the US. They do not.

    I don’t see any excuse for any conservative to vote in a way that concentrates more power in the federal government at this point. It’s not the money flowing out of Washington, as inefficient and corrupt as that may be (and I’m not disagreeing with a word you said, I Walton). It’s the power flowing in and feeding Leviathan. No true Reagan Republican would vote to empower “the problem,” not the solution to our woes. We’ve moved waaaay beyond the 80’s, and not in a good way.

    • #90
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