CNN reports that President Biden is growing irritated that he spent his first two years in office getting gargantuan spending bills passed, designed to fund highly visible infrastructure projects, and yet as he enters the final year of this term, there are barely any visible construction projects for him to tout.
President Joe Biden has privately flashed impatience to his senior advisers as his White House struggles to change public opinion on his economic record ahead of the 2024 election, expressing deep frustration that he can’t show off physical construction of many projects that his signature legislative accomplishments will fund.
The president is said to have griped that even as he travels the country to tout historic pieces of legislation like the bipartisan infrastructure law, it could be years before the residents of some of the communities receiving federal funds see construction begin, according to three sources familiar with Biden’s comments to his top aides.
“There’s immense frustration in that, and he has vocalized that very clearly,” said one administration official.
Back in March 2021, a White House “Fact Sheet” — more like an “Assertion Sheet” — claimed, “the president’s plan will accelerate transformative investments, from pre-development through construction, turning “shovel worthy” ideas into “shovel ready” projects.”
Those of us with long memories are having flashbacks, as yet another Democratic president remembers that construction and infrastructure projects, touted as being “shovel ready” and prepared to quickly create lots of jobs, turn out to be more tied up in red tape than expected.
While meeting with his Jobs and Competitiveness Council today in Durham, N.C., President Obama cracked wise about one of his administration’s early catchphrases.
Remember “shovel-ready projects.”
Those were construction projects in the 2009 stimulus bill that were supposed to get moving right away — but jobs council members told Obama today that some got held up because of elaborate government regulations and permitting procedures.
“Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected,” Obama said.
Why do Democratic presidents keep convincing themselves that large stimulus spending projects will be speedy and efficient? I will remind you, Biden was allegedly in charge of the Obama administration’s stimulus and ensuring the money wasn’t wasted; Obama declared, on March 3, 2009, “as part of his duty, Joe will keep an eye on how precious tax dollars are being spent. To you, he’s Mr. Vice President, but around the White House we call him the sheriff–[laughter]–because if you’re misusing taxpayer money, you’ll have to answer to him.”
That laughter may well have been because no one took the idea of Biden as a sheriff all that seriously. By June, Biden was declaring, “We know some of this money is going to be wasted,” — way to go, sheriff! — and many people questioned whether the projects selected really were the most useful or worthwhile:
For instance, the Florida Department of Transportation wants to spend $3.4 million in stimulus money for a turtle tunnel. That’s right, $3.4 million to help turtles cross under a highway. Each year, 1,035 turtles are killed on a half-mile stretch of highway north of Tallahassee, according to The Lake Jackson Ecopassage Alliance, a group advocating for the tunnel. They are hoping to use the stimulus dough to save the turtles.
Across the country in Montana, a border crossing that averages fewer than two passenger cars a day and two to three trucks a month is slated to get $15 million in stimulus funds for upgrades.
And then there was Solyndra…