In what some have described as a “victory lap” for him, President Joe Biden had a little fun at “the former guy’s” expense on Saturday. The passage of his $1.3 trillion infrastructure bill served to advance his BBB agenda, and he didn’t waste any time before celebrating.
“Finally! Infrastructure week! I’m so happy to say that! Infrastructure week!”
That was Biden’s opening as he spoke to the State Dining Room of the White House. It was a callback to a Trump-era joke about how the previous administration could never actually get something like this off the ground.
Before taking questions from the press gaggle assembled, Biden was ebullient about the passage of the bill:
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to suggest that we took a monumental step forward as a nation. We learned that our economy created 5.6 million jobs since we took office on January 20th. Recent unemployment rate of 4.6 percent, two full years earlier than the vast majority of economists projected that would happen. And we’ve just we’re just getting started.
Joe has a big reason to be happy: The passage of this bill marks a major early victory for Biden and the Democratic party, despite some major pushback from within. Progressives managed to get a concession from mainstream Democrats to bring to a vote a measure that would further fund the social safety net and climate concerns.
Democrats had hoped to bring all of the efforts forward at once, but a desire to calculate the price of further spending put progressives’ hopes on hold temporarily.
As he lauded the efforts of Democrats to get this done, Biden didn’t hold back on praising the passage of the bill:
Generations from now, people will look back and know this is when America won the economic competition for the 21st century.
The bill passed the House yesterday and is expected to pass the Senate through reconciliation — to circumvent a Republican filibuster — before President Biden ultimately signs it.
I am so happy to say that it’s infrastructure week. pic.twitter.com/qoeyiCvegb [1]
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 6, 2021 [2]