The journalists on MSNBC are in a huff because Donald Trump isn’t catering to them. Appearing on Monday’s Last Word, Ezra Klein appeared “disappointed” that the infrastructure bill supported by the President and Congress doesn’t go far enough. Vox editor Klein marveled, “I do not understand why they didn't go big on an infrastructure bill. It would have been good politics and clearly it’s what Donald Trump actually believes.”
According to Klein, the $1.2 trillion bill is actually only $200 billion. He whined, “This is not what they promised in the campaign and it wouldn't do what they're saying and hoping it would do.”
Considering how much trashing MSNBC has done of Trump, it’s hard to imagine he wouldn’t want to seek the approval of the liberals at the network. Vox expressed his “disappointment.”
The fact that he's decided to make no unusual deals, no creative deals that isn’t baked into this. That's him not having the interest or intention to dig in on the details of governance, push his vision to an agenda and push those who are recalcitrant in his party behind that agenda. There's a very deep lack of leadership. He only does what's easy to do with Republicans, not what was meant to be a disruptive force about his campaign and his presidency. And it’s one of the real disappointments of his administration.
A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to see more:
Last Word
2/12/18
10:52EZRA KLEIN: The White House keeps saying it's a $1.2 trillion bill. To my deep frustration, the media keeps repeating this. This is a $200 billion bill. It has 200 billion of funding in it that they said they would pay for, but have not said how they will pay for. Of that, 100 billion takes the normal state, federal match where the feds give $4 for every $1 the state puts towards highway construction, and reverses it so it's $1 federal match to $4 the states kick in.
The rest is a hodgepodge of, like, funds of a rural slush fund and tax breaks to private infrastructure that were already going to happen anyway. And so, they're saying it's going to elicit all of this money coming from other people because they want to spend it so badly that it goes up to 1.5 trillion. That isn't how this works. I do not understand why they didn't go big on an infrastructure bill. It would have been good politics and clearly it’s what Donald Trump actually believes. But they didn't and this is not what they promised in the campaign and it wouldn't do what they're saying and hoping it would do.
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: One political reason is that the people who actually write this stuff, the congressional Republicans, are opposed to this kind of spending. They've been opposed to it for some time. So trying to get them to take money and apply it this way was an unlikely prospect from the start. So they've come up with this thing that Chuck Schumer is calling a mirage. I mean, it's possibly that none of those mayors and governors will take any of this 20 percent funded money.
...
KLEIN: The fact that he's decided to make no unusual deals, no creative deals that isn’t baked into this. That's him not having the interest or intention to dig in on the details of governance, push his vision to an agenda and push those who are recalcitrant in his party behind that agenda. There's a very deep lack of leadership. He only does what's easy to do with Republicans, not what was meant to be a disruptive force about his campaign and his presidency. And it’s one of the real disappointments of his administration.
