It’s Infrastructure Week Again!

Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi talk with reporters this morning after meeting with President Trump and agreeing on a $2 trillion infrastructure plan that will become reality as soon as someone finds $2 trillion. Chuck and Nancy both pretended to be delighted and the press pretended to believe them.Douglas Christian/ZUMA

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Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer emerged from the White House this morning to report that President Trump had agreed to a $2 trillion infrastructure plan. Hallelujah! There’s just one teensy weensy detail to be worked out:

“The ball is in their court,” Schumer said. “We told him that, it was repeated over and over again, that unless he is willing to come up with the pay-fors for this large package, it will never get done, and he agreed. And so we agreed to meet in three weeks, the same group, and they would present what their pay-fors would be, and I thought that was encouraging.

Let’s see. A $2 trillion project probably means $200 billion per year over ten years. So Trump has to either (a) raise taxes by $200 billion or (b) cut other spending by $200 billion or (c) resort to smoke and mirrors. Option A is, of course, a laughable impossibility, and Option B is no better with an election year coming up. So that means smoke and mirrors is the winner! I can’t wait.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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