what is infrastructure historically it's
been what makes the economy move what is
it that we all need to ensure that we as
citizens are productive the president
said this week
that infrastructure evolves to meet the
american people's
aspirations and it's not static less
than six percent of this proposal goes
to roads and bridges
democrats have decided it's the english
language that has to change
they're embarking on an orwellian
campaign to convince everybody
that any government policy whatsoever
can be labeled
infrastructure the definition of
infrastructure a key part of this first
launch
of the sales campaign for the next
spending bill
bills we believe on capitol hill let's
bring in our panel
former white house press secretary ari
fleischer marla lyon national political
correspondent of national public radio
and jonah goldberg editor-in-chief of
the dispatch
it is aria a little interesting to hear
this kind of
vague amorphous definition of
infrastructure but you know but i do
have to tell you i think there's a
little merit to what they're saying
about times
change technology changes definitions
do evolve i just think they've gone too
far
with how much they're trying to jam in
and call infrastructure
you know i mean you could say grass is
infrastructure because
cattle eats grass and cattle gets us
meat and without meat we wouldn't have
energy
we couldn't do what we do so grass is
infrastructure you know
you can take it to every length that you
want and that's my
beef with what the democrats have done
here and what joe biden's done
trying to jam in so much spending on
the guise of infrastructure but i do
think there are some things like
broadband
and other elements that reflect a more
modern society
that can indeed be considered
infrastructure and i think republicans
would work with democrats on that
unless democrats go too far in
redefining the word
which is what they've done their meeting
at the white house apparently went well
an hour 40 minutes but
mara is their real prospect of
republicans getting on board with
something like this
well i think it's possible that if you
could break off some pieces of this
anything that makes the u.s more
competitive with china
universal broadband 5g technology
cr manufacturing our own semiconductors
instead of being dependent on china
those things i think both parties would
say are infrastructure
and it's possible that they could get
republican support i think when you get
into human infrastructure which the
white house defines
including universal pre-k community
college
long-term care so that women don't have
to quit their jobs
outside the home to take care of an
elderly parent i think a lot of those
women would say
that's infrastructure you're not going
to get republican support for that but
yes
i do think there are some things that
you could get bipartisan support for
jonah this weekend the secretary of
transportation uh secretary but judge
ran into a bit of a rhetorical buzz saw
with chris wallace on fox news sunday
on the sales job of this take a listen
there are a lot of different analyses
about just how many million jobs this is
going to create
i saw a georgetown study i think it said
an investment of this type
of create or secretary you're the one
who pointed this
out you're the one who signed moody's
analytics as 19 million and it's
actually 2.7 million
which is a bunch but it's not what you
said it's part of a scenario that moody
says will create
19 million jobs but the the bottom line
is
it's going to add jobs and this is a
direct refutation
of people who are saying otherwise
john yeah personally i i love that he
has brought back this old obama era
talking point of created or saved
jobs because it's utterly
non-falsifiable just so you know
just this morning i did or saved 500
push-ups
um and i think that this thing
it gets to this larger problem that we
have
in with the body administration these
days is
it harkens back to that obama era stuff
remember where they changed
terrorist states to nations of concern
or
you know these kinds of things they
think if they can change the words they
can change the reality
and some of this is just simply pole
driven
infrastructure tracks to mean good
with a lot of americans so they think
that if they can convince amer
if they can convince enough americans
that x or y
or z or grass as arya says is
infrastructure
then they win the debate and i don't
think it's actually going to work that
way
because words are not the same thing as
things
i want to turn overseas real quick to to
iran
and um and and the israel israeli prime
minister netanyahu meeting with the
defense secretary
austin uh talking about iran extensively
take a listen
there is no threat that is more serious
more dangerous
more pressing than that posed by the
fanatical regime in iran
iran has never given up its quest for
nuclear weapons i will never
allow iran to obtain the nuclear
capability
to carry out its genocidal goal of
eliminating israel
the prime minister going back to that
again and again i think nine times
several times
during that joint event defense
secretary austin did mention
iran once the administration ari is
trying to get back in this nuclear deal
there was an incident over the weekend
where the nuclear facility in iran
lost power and it's being blamed on
israel currently
your thoughts on this dynamic and how
it's developing
in u.s policy well i think it's fair to
say that israel has a history of doing
two things
making peace with its adversaries egypt
jordan
now uae bahrain morocco
has made a peace treaty with israel
israel always looks to make peace with
its arab neighbors and has
or it defends herself from those who
present the threat
iraq when iraq was developing nuclear
weapons at the osiric plant
syria when syria was developing a
nuclear plant israel took it out
and now iran it certainly appears that
israel has taken out or at least
neutralized foreign time being iran's
ability to produce nuclear weapons down
the road so
israel takes security seriously and any
nation
that is like israel a small nation
surrounded by potentially hostile
countries
in the middle east any other nation
would do the same thing as israel does
make peace where you can
defend themselves where you must but
more the dynamic between this
administration as opposed to the last
administration
and the relationship with israel is
quite different
yeah very different uh it took a long
time before
uh joe biden reached out you know the
difference about iran
is all about the jcpoa this iranian
nuclear agreement that donald trump
pulled the u.s
out of joe biden has said he wants to
get back into it but
he said that iran has to comply with the
terms of that agreement before he does
iran isn't complying and i think every
day
that that agreement is not in place is a
day that iran is closer to getting a
nuclear weapon it's a really tough
problem
jonah yeah i mean i think the other
thing that has changed is that
israel is now acting on behalf as sort
of already indicated
of vast swaths of its neighborhood
israel
is you know aligned with a lot of these
arab regimes
overtly or covertly because they all
consider iran to be the biggest threat
to the neighborhood
and that gives them a lot more
maneuvering room diplomatically
and lets them be able to break with the
us
uh if the us doesn't seem to want to go
um you know on the same path that
netanyahu and the region does
does it change our the negotiations with
iran on this deal
i don't think it does because i think
the body administration like the obama
administration is hell-bent on striking
a deal with iran i don't know why
i don't know how the notion of a deal
that iran violates anyway
actually preserves peace in the area and
it just seems to be
almost a legacy item they just think we
need to negotiate a deal with iran
so let's negotiate one i don't see an
upside