MSNBC Twists Meaning to Defend Biden's Everything But Infrastructure Bill

April 11th, 2021 7:07 PM

According to MSNBC, Biden deserves credit for rewriting the meaning of the word, "infrastructure," to pay for Democrats' pet projects.

During his Saturday show, Ali Velshi attempted to show that the dictionary is on Biden's side. He put up a graphic on screen that defined infrastructure, saying, "Oxford says 'it is the basic systems and services that are necessary for a country or an organization to run smoothly…'"

 

 

If viewers went to the Oxford Dictionary's website they would find the full definition, without MSNBC's ellipsis, "the basic systems and services that are necessary for a country or an organization to run smoothly, for example buildings, transport and water and power supplies." 

In other words infrastructure requires a physical structure. Still his guest ,The New Yorker's Sheelah Kolhatkar, claimed that, "I think one thing that the Biden administration deserves applause for is that they've looked at how this pandemic affected people's ability to do their jobs and they recognized the fact that having child care or elder care gaps in your life ultimately may lead you not to be able to work outside your house."

She then tried to insinuate that those who do not accept everything to be infrastructure are anti-woman:

"So, yes, they are moving some things that might not have been very strictly traditional types of infrastructure into their definition, but it is very much a response to what we have just seen where we have just witnessed a huge percentage of women dropping out of the workforce because they had to stay home with their kids," she stated.

Kolhatkar concluded that anything liberals want to spend money on is infrastructure:"So, by expanding child care centers, improving public schools, improving elder care, those are going to have direct economic benefits for families. So in that regard I certainly would include them as critical infrastructure." 

The next time the media cites polls showing how popular infrastructure spending is, it should be remembered that the media is working with Democrats to change the very meaning of the word.

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Here is a transcript for the April 10 show:

MSNBC
Velshi

9:03 AM ET

ALI VELSHI: Sheila, let's just start with, I mean you can look up the word infrastructure in various dictionaries. Oxford says “it is the basic systems and services that are necessary for a country or an organization to run smoothly…” Under that definition it can be a lot of things. What we have here is the issue of is Biden redefining infrastructure for the 21st century or, as Republicans say, is he is sticking a lot of Democratic priorities into something and calling it an infrastructure bill? 

SHEELAH KOLHATKAR: Like everything in Washington right now, your definition of infrastructure seems to be based on your political affiliation. So, of course, yeah, it includes all of these very traditional things, roads, bridges, railroads, parks, airports, improving Amtrak, but I think one thing that the Biden Administration deserves applause for is that they've looked at how this pandemic affected people's ability to do their jobs and they recognized the fact that having child care or elder care gaps in your life ultimately may lead you not to be able to work outside your house. So, yes, they are moving some things that might not have been very strictly traditional types of infrastructure into their definition, but it is very much a response to what we have just seen where we have just witnessed a huge percentage of women dropping out of the workforce because they had to stay home with their kids. So, by expanding child care centers, improving public schools, improving elder care, those are going to have direct economic benefits for families. So in that regard I certainly would include them as critical infrastructure.