meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Why Republicans Compromised

What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Slate Podcasts

Daily News, News, News Commentary

4.32.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2021

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After months of negotiation, an infrastructure bill is finally on its way to the Senate floor. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are touting their one big successful bipartisan move, but what’s actually in the legislation? And why are Republicans willing to sign off on a win for Joe Biden? 

Guest: Jordan Weissmann, Slate’s senior business and economics correspondent.

If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, what next listener, Mary Harris here.

0:03.5

Before we get started, wanted to give a quick shout to our newest listeners.

0:08.6

There have been a whole bunch of you over the last few weeks.

0:10.6

We're grateful to have you.

0:12.2

And if you like what you're hearing, please consider subscribing.

0:16.2

You can do that wherever you listen.

0:17.8

And then you can leave us a review.

0:19.3

Tell us what you think.

0:21.1

All right,

0:31.7

onto the show. Slate's Jordan Weissman, he honestly just didn't think there was going to be bipartisan infrastructure legislation in Washington. I went off on a vacation and the last thing I tweeted was I just hope that by the time

0:39.4

I'm back, they've given up this pointless kabuki and moved on to passing a partisan bill.

0:46.1

So I'm putting this on the record that I was a doubter.

0:52.5

Jordan had good reason to be doubtful.

0:55.3

Negotiations had been going on for weeks.

0:57.4

There were a lot of stops and starts, including a moment back in June when President Biden announced there was a deal, which then got scuttled.

1:06.1

Then this weekend, there it was, 2,700 pages of legalese about roads and bridges with senators from both sides

1:14.6

of the aisle, singing the bill's praises.

1:16.6

I want to congratulate the members of the bipartisan group for their efforts.

1:21.6

We haven't done a large bipartisan bill of this nature in a long time.

1:26.6

I mean, the Senate seemed really proud of itself

1:30.7

the other day when they were introducing this bill.

1:34.0

Neither side got everything we wanted.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.