Democrats find useless ways to spend taxpayers’ money

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

This week, comedian Benny Drama’s “Gen Z Intern” hit the White House, complete with manicured, white-painted, claw-like fingernails, a white suit jacket paired with what appears to be a kilt, and a briefcase shaped like a dog.

“Is Olivia Rodrigo still here?” he asks White House press secretary Jen Psaki before helping her with a variety of tasks, including booking a nail appointment, which she didn’t ask for. 

“It’s called initiative,” he sassily explains. Benny Drama and Ms. Psaki did discuss the importance of getting vaccinated in the minute-long Instagram post. Still, mostly the entire thing is absurd, with him striking poses in the West Wing, rooting on Ms. Psaki with spirit fingers, and then taking calls and hanging up on people.

This, from an administration that promised us, the adults were back in charge.

Mr. Drama – his real name is Benito Skinner – is one of an “army” of social media influencers the White House is paying to combat COVID-19 “misinformation.” It seems they’d do better if their message didn’t change every two weeks or so with guidance issued from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But I digress. They’ve dedicated $1 billion to the effort, courtesy of the American Rescue Plan, passed earlier this year.

This is what Democrats do when they’re in charge – find useless ways to spend other people’s money. And unlike previous Democratic presidents’ – this isn’t chump change – the Biden administration is advancing the largest spending agenda in U.S. history.

Take, for example, the monstrosity $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that was rammed through Congress this week, a 2,700-page document that no Senator had time to read. It includes $500 million dedicated to ensuring there’s no racism involved in evaluating the amount of tree canopy in differing neighborhoods. With broadband, $2.75 billion has been reserved to accommodate “broadband inclusion,” which means federal grants will be allocated to states based on a formula of how many racial minorities reside there, and dollars will be given exclusively to entities owned or operated by “socially disadvantaged” individuals – you know, not White folk.

But that’s just the start of the “equity” spending. In their quest to end racial inequity, the bill doles out another $7.5 billion in “equity grants” to erase complaints, like those issued by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg that “racism is physically built into” U.S. highways. Racist highways, be gone! What’s a couple of billion dollars, anyhow? 

Standards will be written to mandate new cars be equipped with advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology – blow into a breathalyzer and, depending on the reading – your car may (or may not) turn on. Monies will also be spent to study the best way to track the mileage you drive – you know, so the federal government can later track and tax you on it when they realize they’ve bankrupted the country. 

Studying the safety of limousines is infrastructure, as is promoting more women truck drivers, and upgrading Amtrak train service in Canada. Invasive plants also need to be eliminated…meaning a “nonnative plant, tree, grass or weed species,” growing on the sides of roads, highways, or railroads, to the tune of $250 million.

Twice as much money is dedicated for public transportation than bridges, but you know, Democrats really want us all to live in urban centers, so they can better teach us their ways, and don’t care about rural America – you backward hicks.

This is just the start of it. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is already drafting the infrastructure bill’s companion, a $3.5 trillion Green New Deal, Medicare for All, liberal wish list. Filled with more pork, more unworkable solutions to solve the problems that only exist in a liberal’s mind.

The 19 “GOP” Senators who voted for the $1.2 trillion “infrastructure” travesty should be ashamed of themselves. They’re now complicit in the Democrats’ vision of a socialist state. Yeah, they may have one new road or one new bridge to brag about. But rest assured, you’ll be paying for it – that and a whole lot more. 

• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at the Washington Times.