Context. It really can be an awkward so-and-so.
Consider this. On one level, President Biden deserves praise for having finally squared the circle on a meaningful US infrastructure bill. Others have tried, others have failed (and, most recently, others have just talked bigly). Biden has – some upcoming congressional debate aside – secured bipartisan support for a programme worth $550bn over the next five years.
However, it is only about a quarter of what Biden was originally seeking in his $2.25tr American Jobs Plan. Even allowing that the original proposal included some non-infrastructure elements (most notably around social care for the elderly), that’s quite a shortfall.
The final number is also some way sort of the $2.6tr that will be needed over the next decade according to the most recent Infrastructure Report Card analysis from the American Society of Civil Engineers. That was published in March.
Moreover, the funding proposals for Biden’s plan...