'A blue collar blueprint to re-build America'

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'A blue collar blueprint to re-build America'

November 8, 2021

Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu

'A blue collar blueprint to re-build America'

Passing an infrastructure bill ought to be the easiest feat in US politics.

Everyone moans about potholed roads, rickety bridges and aging airports. And lawmakers love bringing home taxpayer cash from Washington. But America's vicious divides turned infrastructure into a Holy Grail of governance.

Former President Barack Obama thought an infrastructure bill was one way to work with Republicans. Think again, they said. His successor Donald Trump, one of the world's self-proclaimed greatest developers, saw a natural fit but proved better at tearing things down than building much as president. Infrastructure became a punch line. Until Friday night.

President Joe Biden finally squeezed a $1 trillion bill through Congress after months of excruciating feuding on Capitol Hill. America's transportation infrastructure will now get a desperately needed upgrade. Biden, a train buff, ensured that the underfunded Amtrak will get billions. And if the new law works, it will lay the foundations of a new network of electric charging stations that could update America's love affair with the automobile.

The infrastructure bill is huge for Biden not just because he needed a win after a brutal few months. It also validates two core principles of his 2020 election campaign. The first is that democracy can improve regular peoples' lives -- with the often unspoken goal to drain the resentment and anger that allows demagogues like Trump to thrive. The second and often mocked principle of Bidenism is that despite America's toxic polarization, Democrats and Republicans can work together — as in this case, where Biden got several handfuls of Republican votes in the House and Senate.

"All along, you told me I can't do any of it anyway," Biden told reporters on Saturday, during what has become a rare White House victory lap. "From the very beginning. No, no, come on, be honest. Okay? You didn't believe we could do any of it. And I don't blame you. Because you look at the facts, you wonder, 'How is this going to get done?'"

Fair point -- even if the infrastructure bill is destined to be a one-off moment of partial unity in a capital torn by cultural and ideological schisms that reflect the nation it serves.

'A blue-collar blueprint'

Biden celebrates the House passing the $1 trillion infrastructure bill on Saturday in Washington.

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The world and America

Nicaraguans voted in elections panned as a "sham" by the US.

Iraq's prime minister survived an exploding drone assassination attempt.

And Israel said there is no room in Jerusalem for an American Consulate for Palestinians.

Meanwhile in America, heating costs are on the rise as temperatures drop.

Texas authorities are trying to figure out what caused the crowd crush that killed eight people at a Travis Scott concert.

And a Black man in North Carolina received a funeral 123 years after his death.

How to maintain the status quo

The United States wants to preserve the "status quo" in Taiwan.

So said Biden's national security advisor Jake Sullivan in an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, amid increasing Chinese pressure on the self-governing island. Roughly translated, Sullivan wants no invasion by China, no declaration of independence from Taipei and continuing strategic ambiguity over how far the US would go to defend Taiwan – basically the same situation we've had for the last 40 years. "Fundamentally, what we are looking for is the maintenance of peace and stability, and therefore the maintenance of the status quo," Sullivan said.

The formula that governs US relations with Taiwan and China has come under increasing scrutiny following repeated and mass incursions of Chinese jets into Taiwan's air defense identification zone. And Biden appeared to obliterate the entire concept of strategic ambiguity during a CNN town hall event when he said the US would defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion. But the White House quickly walked the comment back.

In a recent CNN interview, Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen described the island as a "beacon" that needed to be defended to send a message on the importance of democratic values worldwide. And news that US military personnel have been on the island training Taiwanese forces hinted at a more robust US policy, though still within the scope of the Taiwan Relations Act that requires Washington to offer Taipei the means of its own defense, for instance, with purchases of US weapons. There is growing debate in Congress over a more clear-cut US approach than strategic ambiguity.

But some experts fear more overt diplomatic contacts between the US and Taiwan or a firmer guarantee of US support in the event of an invasion would just antagonize Beijing and make Taiwan even more vulnerable. CNN has reported the Biden team is trying to work out how to respond to Chinese pressure on Taiwan without starting a war with its rising geopolitical rival.

The question with which the US must now wrestle is whether, in a new era of Chinese strength, status quo policies are sufficient to maintain the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.

Thanks for reading.

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov holds talks with his Venezuelan counterpart Felix Plasencia. The Eurogroup meets in Brussels. And the White House lifts travel restrictions for fully vaccinated foreign nationals from dozens of countries.