Aside from the logistical nightmare created when an elevated portion of Interstate 95 collapsed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, earlier this month, the issue also highlighted concerns about how taxpayer money is being spent — or misspent — on infrastructure projects.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle have frequently used the promise of infrastructure spending, which has broad bipartisan appeal, as a way to attract support for massive bills that actually fund projects that have little to do with roads, bridges, and other structures.
The most recent, and perhaps most glaring, example of this trend came in 2021 when the Biden administration pushed for — and Congress approved — a bloated bill packed with more than $1 trillion in spending. While it was sold to the American people as an “infrastructure bill,” Dan Savickas of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance reported that “traditional infrastructure only received $127 billion — a little over ten percent — of the bill’s total funding.”
Savickas penned a recent op-ed for the Daily Caller in which he lamented the “shameful and longstanding public policy failures,” including the 2021 bill, that resulted in massive spending with little to show for it aside from a collapsed bridge in Philadelphia.
“Despite infrastructure being a frequent topic of conversation on Capitol Hill, it is often used as a trojan horse to advance other priorities,” he wrote. “This neglect has led to highways, bridges, and tunnels across the United States severely lacking in structural integrity.”
Even the spending that arguably falls under a broad infrastructure umbrella, Savickas wrote, was misallocated.
Citing the $15 billion in electric vehicle subsidies included in the 2021 bill, he noted that consumers are not buying these vehicles at the rate government officials anticipated.
“Furthermore, more uptake in the future threatens the sustainability of the electrical grid,” he added. “Despite these factors, billions went to EVs instead of highways.”
Although 13 House Republicans voted in favor of the bill, an overwhelming majority voted no — including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who was adamant in her opposition to the measure.
Marjorie Taylor Greene says half of the infrastructure bill is "woke infrastructure." pic.twitter.com/hUe2tUGBUV
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) September 21, 2021
She tweeted the names of all 13 GOP colleagues who supported the bill, calling them “traitors” and arguing that they should be stripped of their committee assignments.
