The House passed the first part of President Joe Biden’s big economic and infrastructure plans Friday in a 228 to 206 vote. That’s the $1.2 trillion bipartisan hard infrastructure bill negotiated in the Senate with Republicans—and Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, though mostly with Republicans. Now that it has passed, they are of course giving all the credit to the former guy. Which is what any Democrat gets for trying to be “bipartisan” with the crew of Republicans and which was totally predictable because it’s exactly what they did when the bill passed in the Senate back in August. The bill provides about $550 billion in new spending—the other half of the $1.2 trillion total is already authorized money lumped in. It’s heavy on current fossil fuel-dependent infrastructure like roads and bridges, but does add in broadband, water, and energy system investments. It will, according to the Congressional Budget Office, add $256 billion to the deficit over the next decade. This is a key number to keep in mind as the Senate deficit peacocks who wrote this bill screech about the deficit when it comes to passing the other part of Biden’s agenda, the Build Back Better (BBB) plan. The Joint Committee on Taxation determined this plan will raise about $1.5 trillion in revenue and not add to the deficit long term. Read more