Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg explained to Republicans who oppose money for pipes in the infrastructure bill that humans need water to live.
Video of Buttigieg:
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg explains to Republicans that people need water to live, so pipes are infrastructure. pic.twitter.com/b4xHnnuh5s
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) April 4, 2021
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Sec. Buttigieg said on ABC’s This Week:
Let’s be clear. There’s a lot more than roads and bridges that are part of infrastructure. I heard the governor of South Dakota recently saying this isn’t infrastructure. It’s got money for pipes. We believe that pipes are infrastructure because you need water to live, and too many families now live with the threat of lead poisoning.
That’s absolutely infrastructure, you know, you talk about roads and bridges, but also airports and ports. We need to make sure that we have broadband. I know that traditionally the internet wasn’t considered infrastructure because in the Eisenhower years, of course, it didn’t exist, but infrastructure investment has to include looking to the future. Railroads seemed futuristic, and then we actually built them. Now they’re considered traditional infrastructure. You could say the same about highways, and I’ve got a lot of respect for senator blunt, but I’m going to work to try to persuade him that electrical charging infrastructure is absolutely a core part of how Americans are going to need to get around in the future, and not the distant, far-off future, but right now.
There are places in this country at any given moment of the day that don’t have water due to problems with pipes. Flint wasn’t an isolated incident as far as lead poisoning is concerned due to dangerous water pipes.
The state and condition of America’s infrastructure is a disgrace.
The coronavirus pandemic is proof that Republicans fundamentally do not care about the public good or if human beings live or die.
Republicans will oppose the infrastructure bill because it helps Americans not die from lack of access to safe drinking water.
Human beings need water to live, but Republicans don’t care if the American people get it.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
