During an appearance on CBS’s Face The Nation on Sunday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg outlined the imperative need behind the Biden administration’s push for an ambitious federal infrastructure spending plan. In so doing, Buttigieg expertly dismantled arguments from Republicans who have claimed that the Biden administration’s proposals aren’t needed. As Buttigieg put it, discussing the infrastructure spending negotiations, the issue is “not just about getting through this season.” Rather, he noted, it’s “about making sure that America wins the future.”
Buttigieg also called out Republican obstruction, saying that he thinks “it’s gonna be tough for this country to understand why Republicans would filibuster a good infrastructure bill.” As Buttigieg put it at first:
‘This is not just about getting through this season or some kind of short-term stimulus. This is about making sure that America wins the future at a time when our competitors, like China, and our allies, are investing much more, frankly, in infrastructure than we are. That’s why it calls for such a big step.’
Watch Buttigieg’s remarks below:
.@SecretaryPete on infrastructure bill: “This is not just about getting through this season or some kind of short-term stimulus. It is about making sure that America wins its future at a time when our competitors, like China and our allies, are investing much more.” pic.twitter.com/HeVKscqTFH
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) June 6, 2021
Buttigieg also provided a generally optimistic perspective on the progress of negotiations. There’s an option for Democrats to try and pass something through a procedural move called budget reconciliation, which would require a simple majority in the Senate and is how this year’s COVID-19 relief package got enacted, but as Buttigieg noted, there’s still a need to ensure that the Senate’s Democratic members (including conservatively minded figures like Sens. Krysten Sinema (Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.)) are on board.
Buttigieg commented as follows:
‘There are 50 Democratic senators who think for themselves. You can’t simply assume that all of them are going to come on board with something unless we work through it together. That’s why there are so many Republican and Democratic Senators in the conversations that we’re having right now. I think at the end of the day, it’s gonna be tough for this country to understand why Republicans would filibuster a good infrastructure bill. But we wanna get there in a better way than what’s happened to a lot of issues that have just gotten completely stuck.’
Watch Buttigieg’s comments below:
“There are 50 democratic senators who think for themselves,” @SecretaryPete says of infrastructure bill negotiations. “You can't simply assume that all of them are going to come on board with something unless we work through it together.” pic.twitter.com/XwBoxHlgCp
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) June 6, 2021
