Transportation Hearings And A Senate Vote Highlight Democratic Failures

Sometimes you read a story and you wonder where Democrats went wrong in their appeal to red states. At yesterday’s hearings for Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, the issue of Trump’s infrastructure plan that focuses on public-private partnerships (PPP) came up. These partnerships are basically a privatization scheme of our public infrastructure. In return for enormous tax benefits, private companies get to build or repair infrastructure and the recoup the cost from consumers through tolls and other usage fees. Taxpayers seemingly end up paying twice, once to subsidize the building of the infrastructure and then again to use it. One of the problems with these PPPs is that they tend not to be profitable in low density, low use areas such as rural America. And a number of red state Senators seem to recognize that problem. Shelley Moore Caputo from West Virginia asked Chao a very pointed question in that regard, inquiring, “As a person who represents an almost all rural state, I’m concerned about how we’re going to be able to incentivize the private dollars to go to the less populated, less economically developed areas of our country?” Chao’s insightful answer was, “It’s a huge issue that demands the best thinking of all of us”. I’m pretty sure the mainstream Republican thinking on the issue would be to offer even greater giveaways, I mean incentives, for private companies to “invest” in the areas Caputo describes. A far more effective plan that would be cheaper in the long run is, of course, the Democrats’ infrastructure plan which has languished in the Senate because of inaction by Caputo and her other GOP Senators for at least the last four to six years. As the author of the Slate article notes, “While Democrats have largely favored large public investments in public works, the people who benefit most from such programs are often rural Americans who depend on government largesse.” Other GOP Senators who expressed a similar concern to Caputo’s were Ted Cruz from Texas, Don Young from Alaska, and John Thune from South Dakota. Said Thune, “The urban-rural thing is my version of bipartisanship”, implying, I guess, that both areas are looking to improve infrastructure. Well, the GOP had years to take advantage of that bipartisanship and they never did. And, clearly, Democrats never made any of these red-state Senators pay for that obstruction. But the concerns of Caputo and others show that Democratic policies can appeal to red state voters.

Of course, then you read a story like this, and you realize why Democrats have such a hard time appealing to both red state voters and progressives. Amy Klobuchar and Bernie Sanders introduced a budget resolution that would allow the importation of drugs from other countries such as Canada. These drugs are far less costly in other countries than they are in the US. Only 39 Republicans voted against this resolution meaning that it should have passed the Senate quite handily. But, no. Thirteen Democrats also voted against this resolution, sinking it by a vote of 52-46. Here is the list of those 13 defectors: Cory Booker of New Jersey, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Chris Coons of Delaware, Robert Casey of Pennsylvania, Tom Carper of Delaware, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Michael Bennett of Colorado, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Patty Murray of Washington, Jon Tester of Montana, and Mark Warner of Virginia. New Jersey is the home to many big and small pharmaceutical companies and most of these Democrats, especially Booker and Menendez, have received big donations from Big Pharma. But if there was ever a time to buck the big donors on a vote, this was surely it. Trump himself is going after the pharmaceutical companies, singling them out in his press conference. Of all these Senators, I believe, only Booker is up for re-election in 2018. With cover from Trump and even other Republicans, it would blunt any Republican challenge that Pharma could find for Booker and possibly the other Senators. Tester and Donnelly are in red states so this vote would seem like a no-brainer for them, especially Donnelly as he will be defending a tough seat in Indiana. And Patty Murray is part of the Democratic leadership. Some leadership!

Both these stories a classic examples of how Democrats blow chance after chance to expand their message into Republican territory. Until we learn how to do that effectively, every election will be much closer than it should be, despite being a majority in the country at large.