After being the butt of political jokes for four years, this week appears to be shaping up as an actual legislative Infrastructure Week, as President Biden is poised to begin revealing and campaigning for his infrastructure plan in two parts. The first part, previewed today, proposes $2.25 trillion in spending on physical and caregiving infrastructure and $400 billion in clean energy tax credits. An additional package is expected to be revealed soon focusing on child care, health care and other support needs and expected to bring the total spending to over $4 trillion.
But some of the usual suspects are unhappy. The Green-New-Dealers, let's call them, want to spend $1 trillion a year for the next 10 years, and to give it some sort of (likely haphazard) legislative form, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus in the House and Sen. Ed Markey in the Senate are planning on introducing something called the THRIVE Act.
That's fine. It's not going to go anywhere, but every member of Congress has the prerogative to waste taxpayer dollars and staff time to introduce legislation that won't go anywhere and aren't a serious attempt at legislating.
But here's where it gets weird: the leftists' media allies are trying to drag the Biden administration into the $10 trillion hole, pretending that it, in some form, is the idea of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. The Huffington Post's report on it makes it appear that Haaland, as a representative from New Mexico, supported this $10 trillion package last year.
...the THRIVE Act ― a version of which former Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), who now serves as Biden’s interior secretary, introduced last year ― offers a broad progressive consensus on what an ambitious package should include.
It turns out that then-Rep. Haaland did introduce a resolution with the title THRIVE, specifically HR 1102 - Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to implement an agenda to Transform, Heal, and Renew by Investing in a Vibrant Economy. Haaland's resolution was cosponsored by 89 members of the House, including almost all of the Progressive Caucus.
So why is Huffington Post wrong? The September 2020 resolution, introduced by Haaland, was a Sense of the House resolution, and had no mention of definite spending numbers in it. It noted some overarching goals that no one really disagrees with, such as sustainable and equitable development. News coverage at the time, including through press releases from cosponsors of the resolution, made no mention of a dollar figure of spending.
So while it is true that now-Secretary Haaland introduced a House resolution by the same name, the pretense that she is associated, in any way, with the $10 trillion as-yet-unwritten legislative plan from the CPC and Ed Markey is a blatant and complete lie.
It's a lie meant to undermine the Biden administration, and specifically, to undermine Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' immense popularity with everyday progressives. It's a lie meant to make it appear that the President is essentially shorting progressives in his own administration and muzzling them. It's a lie meant to sow division, create drama, and sell clicks.
Don't fall for it.