This past week, hundreds of mayors and other local officials came to Washington to try to get some action out of Congress and the administration, and many of them were asking common-sensical questions.
Such as:
Why would you start a trade war when so many people already are struggling to earn a living?
Why would you cut taxes when we are desperate to fix potholes, replace rusting water pipes and modernize our ports?
What country are you living in?
Well, the mayors were probably too polite to ask that last one. But judging by the disconnect between the challenges they deal with every day and the useless rhetoric they were offered here, it must have been on their minds.
Worse than useless, actually. It happened that while they were in town, five Cabinet secretaries went to Congress to tout their shiny new infrastructure plan — with absolutely no proposal to pay for it. Meanwhile, Congress, having slashed taxes primarily on behalf of corporations and rich people (and along the way making it more difficult for cities to float bonds for construction projects), began discussing yet another tax break — primarily, yes, for rich people.
