On Day 77, the Biden-Harris White House all-but-reveals their best infrastructure idea yet: finishing the wall. 

On Infrastructure, “We Will Not Be Open To Doing Nothing.”

President Joe Biden delivered remarks at the White House Wednesday on his infrastructure, jobs, healthcare, and climate plan. 

The president tied together the numerous prongs of his proposal with sweeping statements like, “Look at the sui- —more suicides in the military than people getting shot. Is it really your position, my friends, that our veterans don’t deserve the most modern facilities? We could catch that cancer diagnosis quicker, with access to better roads, cleaner water, high-speed Internet that delivers information faster and more of it.”

Biden added later, “To automatically say that the only thing that’s infrastructure is a highway, a bridge, or whatever — that’s just not rational.  It really isn’t. I think the vast majority of Americans think everything from the sewer pipes, to the — to the — the sewer facilities, to the water pipes — I think they’re infrastructure.”

Very few people contest whether water and sewer facilities are infrastructure; some would contest whether “dedicated funding to support community-driven environmental justice efforts,” “community violence prevention programs,” and “eliminating the use of paper plates” in public schools are infrastructure.

We Are Not Building The Wall “For The Most Part.”

Asked if the White House is considering restarting some border wall construction, press secretary Jen Psaki replied that wall construction was mostly “paused,” but a review is underway of “the funds that had been allocated.”

The exchange continued:

PSAKI: When the administration took office, as you know—but funds had been diverted from military construction projects and other purposes toward building the wall. That was not something we, of course, supported. There are some components of the wall that had already been allocated—the funding to continue building by Congress. So we’re working within what is allowable.

But our focus is not—we don’t believe the wall is an answer. We have never believed the wall as an answer to addressing the challenges—immigration challenges at the border.  That’s why we’re proposing an investment in smart—investments in smart security at the border, why we’re driving 20—what we see as 21st century solutions for border management, and why we believe we should build a functioning immigration system. There’s a review underway of, kind of, where this funding had been allocated and not, but it’s currently paused and—for the most part.

Q: But the President had said he wouldn’t build one more foot of the wall, but you’re saying some monies could still be used to fill in the gaps on construction on the wall?

PSAKI: No, I’m saying that some had been allocated already, previously. We’re working within what our limitations are by law. But we believe — we — we have never believed that putting — building more of a wall — the President doesn’t believe — is a way to address our immigration challenges at the border.

When you get asked about building more wall & won’t admit walls work! Errrr! 🤣🤡 pic.twitter.com/VI44QPLmo8

— McCarthyism2.0 (@mccarthyism2024) April 7, 2021

White House Announces Gun Violence “Intervention” Steps.

The White House released two fact sheets outlining steps the Biden Administration will take to regulate and reduce gun ownership and invest in anti-violence programs. In one fact sheet, the White House noted the race of the victims of the Atlanta, Georgia, shooting, but not the Boulder, Colorado, shooting, where the victims were all white.

The steps including issuing a proposed rule to stop the sale of gun-building kits, issuing a proposed rule “to make clear when a device marketed as a stabilizing brace effectively turns a pistol into a short-barreled rifle,” publishing model “red flag” legislation for states, investing in community violence interventions through the American Jobs Plan, issuing an annual report on firearms trafficking, and nominating gun control lobbyist David Chipman to serve as Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.