A sad running joke under the Trump administration became a happy reality for President Joe Biden late Friday. "Finally, infrastructure week," Biden quipped on Saturday morning, after shepherding a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package to final passage. The victory was a much-needed win for a president who hasn't had many of those lately, and a bigger win for America, for which the shabby condition of its roads, bridges and other infrastructure has become a global humiliation.

While Biden can crow that the package was bipartisan, the fact remains that most congressional Republicans voted against it. They should be endlessly reminded of their shortsightedness as the jobs and other benefits of this long-awaited program become clear. As for the six Democratic progressives who voted against it for strategic reasons — including St. Louis Rep. Cori Bush — can we assume this means they won't be posing for the cameras in front of new improvement projects that arise from this bill in their districts?

Though significantly smaller than what Biden initially sought, the final package nonetheless will provide a long-needed overhaul of the nation's distressed physical and technological landscape. It's the very kind of overhaul that former President Donald Trump promised again and again, but never did deliver upon, mostly due to opposition from his own party.

As Biden noted Saturday, "The vast majority of the thousands of jobs that will be created do not require a college degree. This is a blue collar blueprint to rebuild America." It will invest $110 billion in roads and bridges, $66 billion in passenger and freight rail and $65 billion to improve America's broadband structure. Billions more will go toward upgrading airports, sea ports, and power and water systems. Money is in there as well for development of electric vehicles and other efforts to mitigate greenhouse gases.

The bill is largely paid for by using unspent pandemic-relief funding and strengthening tax-enforcement policies. The Congressional Budget Office says it will add about $256 billion to projected deficits over the next decade. All but 13 House Republicans voted against it on supposed fiscal-responsibility grounds — this from the party that has added some $2 trillion to the deficit with its 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy. It's the latest reminder that today's GOP stands for knee-jerk obstructionism, coddling the rich and pretty much nothing else.

The half-dozen Democratic "no" votes, from Bush, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and others in the hard-left progressive caucus are more complicated. They didn't oppose the infrastructure package on its merits but wanted it paired with Biden's even more ambitious "Build Back Better" package addressing health care, child care, education and climate. Whatever the strategic logic, Bush's all-or-nothing gambit didn't serve her St. Louis constituents who, despite her opposition, will benefit from both the jobs and improved infrastructure of the bill that passed Friday.

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