The Trump coverup no one is talking about: The emperor has no money

The late Steve LaTourette came into Congress as part of Newt Gingrich’s 1994 conservative revolution. The Ohio Republican was a party loyalist but not an ideologue. He thought government ought to do such revolutionary things as build roads and bridges. So when I asked him why he decided to quit Congress in 2012, he had a ready answer: “Because we couldn’t even pass a highway bill anymore.”

LaTourette, who died in 2016, was part of an informal group sometimes known as “Building Trades Republicans,” a band that believed constructing stuff and paying construction workers well were good ideas. He was also on the Appropriations Committee, and appropriators have historically embraced a give-and-take with Democrats to finance projects both sides could brag about. LaTourette really liked infrastructure.

I thought of him last week when President Trump blew up his meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer . The gathering was supposed to be the follow-up to their earlier “agreement” on a $2 trillion infrastructure proposal. You need those scare quotes because Trump was obviously not ready to agree on anything.

View the complete May 26 commentary by E. J. Dionne, Jr. on The Washington Post website here.