2021年经济学人 拜登的基础设施法案--悬而未决(1)（在线收听）

United States

美国版块

The infrastructure bill

基础设施法案

It's a deal

成交

Joe Biden's bipartisan dream stays alive, for now

目前，乔·拜登的两党合作梦还在

Even before the Senate voted overwhelmingly to advance a bipartisan $1.2trn infrastructure agreement, President Joe Biden hailed it as proof "that our democracy can function, deliver and do big things".

甚至在参议院以压倒性多数投票通过一项1.2万亿美元的两党基础设施协议之前，美国总统乔拜登就曾称赞它是“我们的民主能够发挥作用、实现并做大事”的证据。

In fact, given the legislative hurdles ahead, the deal supplied evidence—tentative at that—for just the first claim.

事实上，考虑到今后的立法障碍，该协议仅为第一个索赔提供了证据——暂时的证据。

Yet for a country aghast at its own toxic partisanship, that is significant progress.

然而，对于一个党派之争十分激烈的国家来说，这是一个重大进步。

In a procedural step required to prevent a filibuster, all 50 Senate Democrats were joined by 17 Republicans, including their leader, Mitch McConnell, who has called himself the Grim Reaperfor his opposition to Democratic policy-making.

在阻止阻挠议事的程序步骤中，17名共和党参议员加入了所有50名民主党参议员的行列，其中包括他们的领袖米奇·麦康奈尔。麦康奈尔因反对民主党的政策制定而自称为“死神”。

During the presidency of Donald Trump, Mr McConnell resisted Mr Trump's own hopes of investing in infrastructure.

在唐纳德·特朗普担任总统期间，麦康奈尔拒绝了特朗普投资基础设施的希望。

But Mr Trump's infrastructure initiative was so inchoate it became a national punchline.

但特朗普的基础设施倡议太过稚嫩，成了全美的笑料。

This time, months of painstaking negotiation among a small group of Democrats and Republicans, coaxed with compromises from Mr Biden, resulted in a package likely to be broadly popular with the public, if not with activists of either party.

这一次，一小群民主党人和共和党人经过几个月的艰苦谈判，拜登做出了妥协，最终达成了一项可能会受到公众广泛欢迎的方案，即便两党活动人士都不喜欢。

In contrast to the dysfunctional policymaking under Mr Trump, "in this case you had the Biden White House, the Senate Republicans and the Senate Democrats," says Scott Jennings,

共和党顾问、麦康奈尔的长期顾问斯科特·詹宁斯表示，与特朗普领导下功能失调的政策制定相比，“这一次，

a Republican consultant and longtime adviser to Mr McConnell, "they all had the appetite and the attention span to work things out."

拜登领导下的白宫、参议院共和党人和参议院民主党人都有解决问题的意愿和持续的关注。”

This is, he adds, how the Senate is meant to work, patiently shaping consensus.

他补充说，这就是参议院的工作方式，耐心地达成共识。

In all, the bill would add some $550bn in spending across eight years on top of other projected infrastructure investments.

总的来说，该法案将在未来8年增加约5500亿美元的支出，此外还将增加其他预计的基础设施投资。

There would be $110bn for roads, bridges and other such projects, $73bn for the electric grid, $65bn for universal broadband access, $55bn for clean drinking water, $42bn for ports and airports,

1100亿美元将用于道路、桥梁和其它此类项目，730亿美元用于电网，650亿美元用于通用宽带接入，550亿美元用于清洁饮用水，420亿美元用于港口和机场，

and $7.5bn for a national network of charging stations for electric vehicles. The deal also includes $39bn for public transit.

75亿美元用于全国电动汽车充电站网络。该协议还包括390亿美元用于公共交通。

Democrats and Republicans say the spending would be paid for with a mix of sources including unused pandemic-relief money, unspent unemployment benefits and changes to prescription-drug rules.

民主党和共和党表示，这些支出将由多种来源支付，包括尚未使用的流行病救济资金、未使用的失业救济金和对处方药规定的修改。