Federal government braces for a long – and expensive – road to recovery from Baltimore bridge collapse
CNNMar 27
Baltimore Bridge: Temporary Channel Announced Amid Rebuilding Plans
The Facts
On Sunday, the "unified command" of federal and state officials responding to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge announced that a temporary channel would be established to support maritime traffic access to the port of Baltimore.
This comes as the US Department of Transportation has approved a request from Maryland Gov. Wes Moore for $60M in emergency funds to clear debris and start rebuilding Baltimore's collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge.
The Spin
Democratic narrative
The Biden administration is right to allocate significant federal resources to reopen the critical Port of Baltimore and rebuild the bridge as soon as possible. These efforts wouldn't be without precedent as the federal government has previously released millions in similar incidents in Minnesota in 2007 and in Philadelphia last year.
Republican narrative
It's outrageous that the very first — and so far the only — reaction from the Biden administration is to force American taxpayers to pay for yet another rebuilding project as if there were no other alternatives. The White House should instead try to have Singapore and insurance companies help finance the project, as well as to reappropriate unused money.
Nerd narrative
There's a 50% chance that the US national debt will reach $50T by January 2030, according to the Metaculus prediction community.