Donald Trump is criticized by Joe Biden for his “punchline infrastructure week”

‘We’re turning infrastructure weekend from a punch line [under] my my predecessor into an infrastructure decade on our watch,’ Biden intoned.

The Trump Administration repeatedly tried to pull off messaging for ‘infrastructure weeks,’ only to have Trump step on the message or have events like former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony upend the plan.

Biden is pitching the infrastructure law around the country, and talking up a series of investments in communities as he boosts his travel in advance of the November elections.

‘Last year I signed into law a once-in-a generation investment in our nation’s roads, highways, bridges, railroads, ports, airports, water systems, high speed internet, etc. It’s called the bipartisan infrastructure law. And it’s the most significant – this is a fact – most significant investment since President Eisenhower’s interstate highway system,’ he said.

Then he pitched a $62 million investment in Boston’s Logan Airport, which he called an economic engine that helps drive $17 billion in imports and exports.

Then he pivoted to this summer’s U.S. travel woes, which Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg vowed to try to address amid cancellations and travel horror stories.

‘It means crowded gates longer taxi times airplanes full of passengers just waiting, all of which is causing congestion and flight delays for travelers passing through. It means misconnections lost baggage long line for businesses it can mean delayed orders, spoiled products and very unhappy customers. The traffic jam on planes taxiing down the runway caused unnecessary air pollution and neighboring communities in East Boston. It’s frustrating. It’s inconvenient. It is bad for the environment. And there’s simply no reason for it,’ he said.

‘We’re full steam ahead. We will have a first class airport here in very short order,’ Biden said.

Then he cited a report that no U.S. airports were among the top 20 in the world, and retold a story about an embarrassing return from abroad to LaGuardia Airport, where he said a sign said the escalator was ‘out of order’ and ‘will be fixed in two months.’

‘What are the hell’s the matter with us?’ Biden asked.

Biden’s cheerleading followed a report that he was dialing back his focus on inflation amid dropping gas prices, although year-over-year inflation has still been running at or near historic levels.

He also is stressing deficit reduction, after his Inflation Reduction Act was forecast to lower the deficit, although he then followed up with an expansive student debt program that some estimates say could cost $1 trillion.

‘By the way, when you hear your Republican friends or anybody else tell you boy, they’re spending a lot of money. Guess what? We cut the budget $350 billion last year. We cut the deficit. The deficit. We cut the deficit this year by over $1 trillion this year. We know how to grow and reduce the burden as well.

Late last month, the government forecast a $1 trillion deficit for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, a decline of $1.7 trillion and a record drop. But the estimates came before Biden signed a $280 billion law he also touted to invest in microchip manufacturing and a climate healthcare spending law called the Inflation Reduction Act, which he will celebrate this week.

The annual deficit was $3.1 trillion in 2020 as the government sought to combat the pandemic after it first hit.

The Treasury announced last week that the accumulated debt was set to hit $31 trillion next month.