Ka‘ū News Briefs, Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021

Vaccine hesitancy is nothing new, with Elvis promoting the the launch of polio vaccines in the 1950s. See the story on NPR at https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/05/03/988756973/cant-help-falling-in-love-with-a-vaccine-how-polio-campaign-beat-vaccine-hesitan. Also take Rep. Ed Case'ssurvey on reasons for vaccination hesitancy. Image from NPR

MUCH OF HAWAI'IS AND THE NATION'S INFRASTRUCTURE IS CRUMBLING, said U.S. Rep. Ed Case in a statement released to day. He pointed to roads, bridges, harbors, air ports, water and sewer systems, public transit and the power grid. He said it "is crumbling for lack of maintenance and reinvestment. At the same time, much of what is often referred to as our social infrastructure, meaning our federal policies and programs to maintain and expand a fair and equitable society, are failing far too many. President Biden submitted two huge proposals to Congress: one his $2 trillion American Jobs Plan for physical infrastructure; and the other his $3.5 trillion American Families Plan for social infrastructure. (For scale, our total federal annual discretionary budget is $1.5 trillion.) The President also proposed that his plans be fully paid for, meaning that they would not be financed by further federal debt, unlike the $5-plus trillion we just borrowed over the past 18 months for federal COVID emergency assistance."                   Regarding the status of federal infrastructure funding, Case said, "In such a divided Congress, there are deep disagreements, between the parties, within the parties, between the Senate and House and otherwise, with various aspects of the proposals. These include whether we should focus first on physical infrastructure (which enjoys widespread public support) or social infrastructure as well, whether the specific initiatives are the right ones, whether the amounts are too large or small, whether we should borrow the trillions to finance the proposals or pay for them, and what current programs to reduce or taxes and other revenues to increase if we follow President Biden's pay-for proposal. With the President's support, the U.S. Senate amazingly surmounted those differences and last Tuesday passed 69-30 a $1 trillion bipartisan physical infrastructure package (which would be our largest infrastructure package ever), mostly paid for. The Senate also passed, 50-49, a budget resolution which sets some ground rules for further consideration of the $3.5 social infrastructure package but allows for up to some $1.8 trillion in additional federal borrowings.

Rep. Ed Case talks about infrastructure and COVId on Hawai`i Public Radio. See https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/podcast/the-conversation/2021-08-11 /the-conversation-congressman-ed-case-coronavirus-restrictions-infrastructure

     Case described options. "In the U.S. House, we now have various options. One is to pass the $1 trillion bipartisan physical infrastructure bill now and send it to the President, who would in all likelihood sign it into law. Another is to change the bill, which would require it to go back to the Senate, then into a joint House-Senate conference (if it passed the Senate), then to the House and Senate again, then to the President. Another is to hold the $1 trillion package and not pass it unless and until the budget resolution or $3.5 trillion package are also passed. While President Biden has not linked the two proposals, House Speaker Pelosi has."
    Case said his dicision is that "we should pass the $1 trillion physical infrastructure package immediately and send it to the President without changing it and without linking it to the $3.5 trillion social infrastructure package. Our country desperately needs this reinvestment, which would also provide billions to Hawai'i for our own critical needs. The country widely supports this measure, which is not only about reinvesting in our crumbling infrastructure but also about proving our dysfunctional government can actually work. In a deeply divided Congress, it is virtually impossible to pass such major initiatives, and any changes or delays will likely cause this one to fail. I support much of the $3.5 trillion package, but believe it needs significant refinement to target actual needs, and I am deeply concerned with any further deterioration in our federal finances which are in their worst shape in three generations.'