Chief among words America will soon hear, over and over, are inside baseball in the Senate: "infrastructure" and "filibuster."

The debate on President Joe Biden's American Jobs Plan for infrastructure takes up where Franklin D. Roosevelt's public works programs left off. When Biden was born, Roosevelt was the president.

A common touch is a refreshing tonic.

Deep in the Depression, Roosevelt thought big. He reached for a bright future from a hard present. Post offices with murals, tree planting, preserving folklore — and more — created civic goods for us all to share.

Biden is thinking exactly like FDR's blueprint as the nation finds its way from the dark pandemic. The way out is to think big and bold for the public square, not private gain.

Simply put, infrastructure is an equalizer that benefits the public. The common good — what a concept.

Broadband access, better hospitals and school buildings are in the presidential mix. So are an improved electrical grid, clean water and lead-free pipes. Lead pipes are a danger to children to this day.

After a president who made the robber barons look good, most know it's time for a change. Let America be America again, as poet Langston Hughes wrote.

Our common good relies on roads and bridges, for sure, but 21st-century infrastructure goes beyond that. To my delight, Biden shares a love of trains and aims to strengthen the fraying rail network. Such a smart way to address climate change.

The soaring Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was built in the 1930s, financed by FDR's New Deal.

My favorite piece of infrastructure inspires as it sings of California to all who cross over. It belongs to everybody — and nobody — enriching our shared space for free.

The beauty of infrastructure shines in the light: It belongs to all of us. We the people. Biden is investing in the people for public benefit, with no special favors or breaks to the rich.

The package price tag is $3 trillion, but that's no big deal between friends, Romans and countrymen. The urgent truth is we can't afford not to enhance our public spaces and facilities after falling behind in lost time.

To go with that, let's emphasize all walks of life using the same schools, parks and libraries with less privatization of education, recreation, resources and even the water we drink. Wealth has become a divider. The campaign chorus — "we're all in this together" — calls for improved social arenas.

The corporate tax is only 21%, which experts know is too low. Former President Donald Trump heedlessly cut the rate down from 35%. Biden seeks to redress that to 28% to pay for the plan. That's fair, but Republicans will carp. Let them.

The modern "crisis presidents," Roosevelt and Biden, do not try to make friends with their foes. The juggernaut can't stay still after passing the $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package.

The Senate works in obscure ways. Its unique "filibuster" stands in the door of progress, requiring 60 votes in the 100-member Senate on most votes, to force consensus.

In this fiercely partisan era, that is a blockade to progress for the president. So the filibuster has got to go. The Senate is 50-50 now, with the vice president empowered to break a tie.

Barack Obama wrote in "A Promised Land" that he wishes he had gone after abolishing the filibuster.

In the old days, senators stood up on the floor speaking for hours, day and night, to filibuster a bill. But the Senate is a far cry from scenes in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." They barely debate anymore. Lazy lawmakers sprint to their SUVs on Thursdays to get to the airport.

Infrastructure won't need 60 votes to pass, just 50. But a voting rights bill, "For the People," would have to clear the high filibuster bar.

I witnessed a rare rapt moment in the chamber. The first Black senator from Georgia, Raphael Warnock, preached on "Jim Crow in new clothes." (He's the pastor in Martin Luther King Jr.'s former pulpit.)

Voting rights in democracy are "too important to be held hostage by a Senate rule," Warnock declared.

Americans long to heal and go forward with infrastructure, and without the filibuster.

Jamie Stiehm may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To read her weekly column and find out more about Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.

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