During an interview that aired as part of MSNBC’s The Sunday Show over the weekend, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg shut down Republican arguments against the Biden administration’s infrastructure spending initiatives. As Buttigieg explained things, these spending plans respond to substantive needs on the part of everyday Americans — such as the people of Baltimore, Maryland, which is where the Secretary’s MSNBC interview took place. The Biden administration is dishing out $22 million in federal grant money to support efforts to bolster Baltimore’s public transit system.
Millions of Americans are traveling again this Thanksgiving, reminding us of the importance of safe and efficient transportation – and the work ahead to take our infrastructure to the next level.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) November 24, 2021
The project is slated to feature initiatives including new bus lanes, and improving the transit infrastructure in the city along these lines stands to uplift marginalized communities who may struggle to access critical needs, like jobs. As Buttigieg put it:
‘We were looking for projects that bring together a lot of our top priorities. That includes safety, it includes economic opportunity, it includes equity, and climate, and a great transit vision can do all of that… What they’re going to do, adding bus lanes, creating safer and expanded transit will help more people access services, access jobs, access schools, and I think sets this city on a more equitable path.’
This #BlackFriday, retail sales are predicted to reach an all-time high in America. We are grateful to all who work daily to get goods from ships to shelves and into our homes.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) November 26, 2021
Although the recently enacted infrastructure deal had bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress, an overwhelming majority of Republicans in the House — and a majority of Republicans in the Senate — still voted against it. Nevertheless, the plan has been signed into law, and it includes significant support for the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant program, which is where the federal money for Baltimore is coming from.
Child care should not be a luxury item. Neither should pre-k or prescription medication.
The Build Back Better Act is going to make it affordable to raise a family in America.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) November 26, 2021
Buttigieg pointedly commented as follows:
‘That’s something that we’re going to be looking for, among the criteria for programs in the future: how do they make something better, where maybe in the past federal dollars have sometimes made something worse?.. What we’re doing is we are reconnecting people who may have been disconnected or divided by discriminatory decisions in the past. That helps everybody. I don’t know why anybody would be against reconnecting people… The point is not to make America feel guilty. The point is to make America better, and more equitable, and more effective in moving people where they need to go… If transportation was ever used to divide, we have a responsibility — a moral one, but also a very practical one — to fix it.’
Check out his comments below:
.@SecretaryPete on a new $22 million initiative to improve Baltimore’s public transit: “What we're doing is we are reconnecting people who may have been disconnected or divided by discriminatory decisions in the past. That helps everybody.” #SundayShow pic.twitter.com/Xjw17onwBS
— The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart (@TheSundayShow) November 28, 2021