On the recordMay 11, 2021
Mr. President, ``infrastructure,'' ``court packing,'' ``crisis,'' ``Jim Crow,'' ``bipartisan''--all words that we recognize, all words with fixed, long-established meanings, and all words whose meanings are currently being twisted unrecognizably. In the brave new world of the Biden administration, the Democratic Congress, the plain meaning of language is no longer so plain. Take the term ``infrastructure.'' Ask anybody what they think of when they think of infrastructure, and I can guarantee what they will tell you: roads, bridges, waterways, maybe airports. I can also tell you what they won't think of: Medicaid expansion, support for Big Labor, free community college. Why? Because none of those things has ever been part of the definition of ``infrastructure,'' until now. Now Democrats are claiming that infrastructure is pretty much whatever they want it to be. One Democratic Senator tweeted: Paid leave is infrastructure. Childcare is infrastructure. Caregiving is infrastructure. Well, actually, no, they are not. Those are policy proposals-- proposals that could be discussed, but they are not infrastructure. Saying something is infrastructure doesn't make it so. And, unfortunately, Democrats' redefinition of infrastructure, as Orwellian as it is, is actually less alarming than some of Democrats' other attempts at linguistic redefinition. Take court packing.…





