Joey Shades brings home the bacon

For weeks, the Very Serious People have had fainting spells over the infrastructure negotiations. "Joe Biden promised to work with Republicans! Why can't he seal the deal??"

These VSPs were, of course, operating from a place of cynicism. The fault was always with Democrats and Pres. Biden, never with recalcitrant Republicans. They salivated at the upcoming failure of a bipartisan infrastructure deal, and were ready to mock him the way they mocked the former guy and his never-ending Infrastructure Week.

Well, friends, at last it's Infrastructure Week:

President Biden struck an infrastructure deal on Thursday with a bipartisan group of senators, signing on to their plan to provide about $579 billion in new investments in roads, broadband internet, electric utilities and other projects in hopes of moving a crucial piece of his economic agenda through Congress.

“We have a deal,” Mr. Biden said outside the White House, standing beside a group of Republicans and Democrats after a meeting in the Oval Office where they outlined their proposal. “I think it’s really important we’ve all agreed that none of us got all that we wanted.”

Mr. Biden’s endorsement marked a breakthrough in his efforts to forge an infrastructure compromise, but it was far from a guarantee that the package would be enacted. Both the president and top Democrats say the plan, which constitutes a fraction of the $4 trillion economic proposal Mr. Biden has put forth, can only move together with a much larger package of spending and tax increases that Democrats are planning to try to push through Congress unilaterally, over the opposition of Republicans.

“If this is the only thing that comes to me, I’m not signing it,” Mr. Biden said during remarks in the East Room of the White House. “It’s in tandem.”

What does the deal include? Read it for yourself:

• Improve healthy, sustainable transportation options for millions of Americans by modernizing and expanding transit and rail networks across the country, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Plan is the largest federal investment in public transit in history and is the largest federal investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak.
• Repair and rebuild our roads and bridges with a focus on climate change mitigation, resilience, equity, and safety for all users, including cyclists and pedestrians. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework is the single largest dedicated bridge investment since the construction of the interstate highway system.
• Build a national network of electric vehicle (EV) chargers along highways and in rural and disadvantaged communities. The largest investment in EV infrastructure in history, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework will accomplish the President’s goal of building 500,000 EV chargers.
• Electrify thousands of school and transit buses across the country to reduce harmful emissions and drive domestic manufacturing of zero emission vehicles and components.
• Eliminate the nation’s lead service lines and pipes, delivering clean drinking water to up to ten million American families and more than 400,000 schools and child care facilities that currently don’t have it, including in Tribal nations and disadvantaged communities. The Plan is the largest investment in clean drinking water and waste water infrastructure in American history.

And much more.

Now, this isn't the totality of the $4 trillion plan put forth by Pres. Biden. But it moves along the priorities which both Democrats and Republicans agree on. In tandem, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is moving to use reconciliation to enact the rest of the Democratic agenda. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she won't bring up the Gang of 10 plan until the Senate passes the rest of the plan. And Pres. Biden has said he won't sign the bipartisan deal if the reconciliation bill doesn't accompany it.

This is full of so much winning that I might have to pinch myself. Democrats have driven a wedge between what pass for "moderate" Republicans and those still loyal to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. And these Republicans acknowledge that Democrats will pass the parts they don't like via the 50-vote threshold. And there's not a damned thing they can do about it.

This, my friends, is what winning looks like. I know, it's hard to believe. Winning doesn't come by thumping your chest and making "West Wing" speeches. Winning comes by doing the slow, steady, quiet work, by peeling off opponents, by driving divisions within the opposition party. No finger-wagging, no spittle-flecked rage. Calmness and rationality are how you move things forward.

Now, McConnell might still blow things up. He will certainly attempt to do so. But if he does, then Democrats will simply move everything to reconciliation, and even their most skittish members will be onboard. Senator Joe Manchin accepts that this will be a dual-track process. If the GOP nukes its own negotiated position, well, more's the pity for them.

As we go into the weekend, go out and enjoy the summer weather. Adults are back in charge, and they know what they're doing.