PrairiePundit

 Telegraph: Thousands of Russians are living without heating through a freezing winter that is breaking the country’s fragile Soviet-era infrastructure. Hot water pipes are bursting, electricity is failing and radiators are freezing across Russia, triggering complaints from angry locals who have accused officials of incompetence two months before a presidential election. In videos posted this week from Nizhny Novgorod, 265 miles east of Moscow, residents were evacuating apartments flooded with steaming boiling water. “The apartment is completely destroyed. The apartment is uninhabitable,” said one man as he filmed water pouring through the ceiling. In Novosibirsk, Siberia, a major pipe burst on Wednesday, projecting a spout of boiling water high into the air which burnt 13 people and left entire apartment blocks without heating during one of Russia’s coldest winters for decades. A resident of Novosibirsk said she was upset but was not surprised. “Of course people are upset. They ha...

  Monica Showalter: Pittsburgh bridge's 2016 infrastructure funding reportedly diverted to bike lanes and green energy programs ... Instead of repairing the bridge with what likely would have been the Obama-era shovel-ready 2009 infrastructure funds for "roads and bridges," known as the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act," the cash went to bike lanes and green boondoggles, and too bad about the actual structure that was decaying and deteriorating. Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg loves those bike lanes. Bridges that stay up? That is for someone else to take care of. And of course, no one did. For local leftwing politicians and federal cash shovelers, it was too attractive to build bike lanes and dedicated lanes, the better for Democrats to show off to all their little lefty friends. ... Big Green must be fed regardless of the consequences to real infrastructure. 

 Daily Mail: The Biden administration apparently knows what went wrong on Virginia 's I-95 on Tuesday, after an entirely predictable winter storm trapped hundreds of drivers in frigid temperatures for 24+ hours. They didn't pour enough money on it! Who knew dollars melt ice? Even as commuters sat shivering in their vehicles, Kamala Harris took to Twitter . The gaffe-prone Vice President never wastes an opportunity to make a bad situation even worse for the Biden-Harris administration. The tweet, even by Kamala standards, was incredibly tone-deaf. 'Because of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, America is moving again. That's what infrastructure is all about: getting people moving.' The explanation for this poorly timed tweet is anyone's guess. I'm betting a naive social media intern sent it out without realizing the optics nightmare that would ensue. If that is the case, and if the rumors about the Vice President's treatment of her staff are true, then g...

  Breitbart: Republicans Who Supported Biden’s $1.2T Infrastructure Bill Once Opposed $25B for Border Wall I support the border wall which would actually save money that is being wasted by trafficking illegals around the country and putting them on the dole, and I also oppose the boondoggle loaded infrastructure bill. 

  National Review: House Passes $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill amid Wrangling over Reconciliation Package Democrats have broadened the definition of infrastructure to the point of ridiculousness.  There may be some actual projects in this bill but there is also a lot of unrelated matter.

  Hot Air: Dem doom? Americans more likely to say infrastructure bills will hurt them than help That is another reason why Republicans should oppose the spending spree. 

 Washington Examiner: ... Conservatives made it known they were not happy with the bill that cleared the Senate on Tuesday. “Today, the Senate voted to advance a trillion-dollar bill that spends just one-tenth of its total on roads and bridges while funding ‘digital equity,’ dysfunctional Amtrak systems, 'green' subsidies, and more,” said Jessica Anderson, Heritage Action executive director, in a statement. “And as last week’s CBO report shows, and as conservatives predicted, the bill is not paid for and instead increases the deficit by more than a quarter trillion dollars.” “Democrats' $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill is more reckless spending on long-held Democratic priorities like railroads, public transit, and electric charging stations,” said Alfredo Ortiz, president of the Job Creators Network, in a statement. “The bill is infrastructure in name only.” “It is disappointing to see so many Republicans waste taxpayer dollars without concern,” said Mike Gibbons, one of t...

 Breitbart: President Donald Trump came into office and shocked Democrats with a promise to pass an infrastructure bill. They did not know quite how to react, especially after Trump began courting the unions that would benefit from the jobs he wanted to create. Then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) cautiously welcomed the idea; California’s then-Gov. Jerry Brown declared : “Amen, brother!”. But quietly, Democrats maneuvered to defeat Trump’s proposals. Democrats were terrified lest Trump be identified with infrastructure spending, something that Democrats had seen as their own turf since the New Deal era. They want Americans to connect “middle-class” jobs with federal government spending, which means electing Democrats to spend ever-greater amounts of money. That desire ran up against the left’s regulatory zeal, especially on environmental issues, which has stymied infrastructure spending on large scales Trump wanted to get rid of red tape in the permitting for infrastru...

  Trending Politics: Mark Meadows Warns Nearly ALL Infrastructure Money in Dem Bill Goes to Blue Cities This would like lead to more blue state corruption and subsidize the current wasteful spending on Democrat vote-buying schemes. 

 Daily Signal: Over 80% of Americans support proposals to fund the repairs of roads, bridges, ports, and drinking water pipes, but support for most other infrastructure issues is split sharply along party lines, new polling shows. President Joe Biden and a bipartisan Senate group compromised on a $973 billion infrastructure plan in June, but Democrats are working to pass a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package that allocates funding for child care, tax credits, schools, climate change, and more. Many of those provisions are far less popular among Republicans, according to polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Opinion Research. Biden’s approval on infrastructure overall stands at 55%, but has the support of just 22% of Republicans. Support for repairing roads, bridges, and ports comes from 83% of Americans, while 79% support funding for new pipes or replacing lead ones that carry substantial health risks. Three-quarters of all Americans surveyed—and 62% of Republ...

  National Review: Senate Republicans Block Debate on Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill over Lack of Final Text They are smart not to trust them with some of the wild proposals Democrats have made this session. ... “Obviously if the Democratic Leader tries to force a cloture vote on a bill that does not exist, it will fail,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said in a floor speech before the vote. “Around here, we typically write the bills before we vote on them.” ... Sen. Schumer does not appear to be doing a competent job as Majority Leader. 

Thomas Lifson: If Senator John Barrasso's vote-counting skills are accurate, the nation may be spared the extra inflation caused by the trillions of dollars the Dems and President Biden's handlers want to spend on welfare, calling it "infrastructure."  Maybe some of them are getting scared by constituent emails and telephone calls complaining about rising prices, especially for gasoline, and remember what happened to the party after Jimmy Carter wreaked his "malaise" havoc.   Here is video of Senator Barrasso's interview Sunday morning with Maria Bartiromo, on  Sunday Morning Futures , the must-see weekly program that is usually ahead of the news. Interestingly, the Fox Business  web coverage  of the interview doesn't even mention the budget bill, and instead focuses on Senator Barrasso's concerns about pipelines. ... Biden is looking like a serial screw-up at this point.  With inflation galloping through several industries another big-spending f...

 Washington Examiner: ... ...   while President   Joe Biden   released his $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan, the American Jobs Plan, back in March, the vast majority of the funds are earmarked for things not traditionally considered infrastructure. Less than 5% of the total funding is allocated for traditional road and bridge projects. Debates over the plan's merits have centered on what should be defined as infrastructure. Proponents of the bill have argued that child care and broadband, among other things, deserve to be considered infrastructure for today’s economy. That debate about semantics is a distraction. The real issue isn’t whether child care is important or not (of course, it is) but whether traditional infrastructure needs are being short-changed as we expand infrastructure’s definition. After the events of the last week, it’s clear we need to do more to protect our oil and gas pipelines. It is vital not only that private U.S. enterprises maintain ...