Rep. Porter: Infrastructure Alone Is Not Enough for Economic Recovery, 90% of Those Jobs Will Go to Men
"Let’s remember that infrastructure alone is not going to give the job creation that we need to have an economic recovery," California congresswoman says
In the face of Republican intransigence which could lead to the federal government both shutting down and reaching a point where it can no longer pay its debts, some Democrats have perhaps appeared willing simply to pass the smaller bipartisan infrastructure bill as a way out of crisis — and let the broader Build Back Better Act die in the process.
That would not be a good result for the nation’s women, according to a Democratic congresswoman from California.
Led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), Republicans joined to block all Democratic attempts to pass measures aimed at keeping the federal government funded and open beyond Thursday as well as to raise the federal debt ceiling.
Republicans are doing so in anger over the Democrats' $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act, which would fund much of Biden and the Democrats' domestic agenda — including the largest-ever federal investment in the fight against global climate change. That bill was to move through the Senate under a process known as “reconciliation,” which is immune to Republican filibustering.
Unless Democrats find some new way to prevail, the federal government will shut down at 12:59 pm Thursday in the midst of both a global pandemic and a struggling economy. Moreover, without action on the debt ceiling, the government for the first time will default, creating unprecedented economic instability.
Meanwhile, even as they try to make sense of those looming catastrophes, congressional Democrats are having now to consider whether to jettison the $3.5 trillion spending package and pass only the much-scaled back bipartisan infrastructure deal, which is an option leaving many progressives in fits.
Ditching the Build Back Better Act would also be a disservice to American women and other key Americans in need of help, said Rep Katie Porter.
“Well, let’s remember that infrastructure alone is not going to give the job creation that we need to have an economic recovery. About 90 percent of those infrastructure jobs will go to men and these are good, important, high-paying jobs and I support them,” Porter said. “But if we want to continue to govern and lead and we want to continue to support President Biden, then we need to pass the agenda that he ran on, and that is an agenda that means two free years of community college, it's an agenda that supports child care, it’s an agenda that recognizes the crisis that senior care and elder care, community-based care is creating in this country, and it’s dealing with climate change, particularly with younger voters.
“If we don’t do something that is urgent and really necessary on climate change, I don’t think we’ll see younger voters get out to the polls at all, much less to support, you know, either party,” she added in an interview Tuesday.
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