Today's Top Stories From the Breitbart News Desk

What is "infrastructure"? There was a time that Americans agreed it meant roads, bridges, levies, ports, waterways, and maybe essential technologies like broadband Internet. Today, it is, if the Democrats have their way, the essentials of the institutional left's agenda. Do the Republicans understand that? Apparently, some of them do not.

Joe Biden announced a $953 billion dollar infrastructure deal on Thursday. Details of the plan are still unclear, as is now the custom for trillion-dollar spending deals these days. The President touted this as a return to when Washington got "stuff done," a Biden-ism for when he gets what he wants. He gave a statement flanked by moderate Republicans and Democrats, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Rob Portman (R-OH), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Mark R. Warner (D-VA).

It was not lost on Americans who have been paying attention to the seemingly endless Critical Race Theory/Institutional Racism/Anti-Racism/White Privilege news cycle that there were no people of color (POCs) at the presentation. Naturally, Alexandria Ocacio-Cortez framed the bill as racist. "The diversity of this 'bipartisan coalition' pretty perfectly conveys which communities get centered and which get left behind when leaders prioritize bipartisan dealmaking over inclusive lawmaking (which prioritizes delivering the most impact possible for the most people)," the far-left Congresswoman said, indicating the plan is far from a guarantee to pass the House of Representatives.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated she will have a slate of radical demands that would be necessary when it heads to the House. Additionally, Biden has also indicated that he supports a dramatic expansion of "human infrastructure" (another Biden-ism, this time for socialist programs), which will certainly become a part of the negotiation going forward.

Yes, it appears as though the vast majority of Americans support some sort of "infrastructure deal," but we certainly don't seem to agree on a definition of what the word means.

Elsewhere in the world of finance, jobless claims came in above expectations again and above 400,000 for the second week in a row. Has the recovery stalled out? This is a concern. Why would that happen? Maybe the threat of higher taxes and more regulation is already weighing on the economy. One big possibility: businesses hired a lot of people expecting the reopening to be stronger than it actually is.

– Alex Marlow & John Carney
Breitbart News Network