President Joe Biden hasn’t exactly been a stranger to Baltimore over the last four years. Our proximity to the White House and his family home in Wilmington, Delaware, along with the fact we’re served by Amtrak has a lot to do with it. But we must admit we are delighted he is coming back on Tuesday, at least in part, to tout the success of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Three years ago, the president came to the Port of Baltimore to celebrate its passage.

Today, he deserves his final victory lap.

Say what you will about the state of the federal budget and debt but there is a big difference between wasteful or even optional expenses (or, on the other side of the ledger, tax cuts designed mostly to curry favor with a preferred voting block) and core investments that create long-term prosperity. Building highways and bridges, digging shipping channels or rail tunnels, expanding airports and internet capacity, these are the foundations that can help support this nation’s economy for generations. Since the infrastructure measure passed, Maryland has been pledged more than $13 billion in what should be core government spending with an additional $3 billion from other sources.

Even now, it’s hard to believe this sort of responsible decision-making is especially controversial, particularly in a country that was at the time still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet it was. So how is all that conservative Republican furor over the bill looking now? Here’s our favorite election year phenomenon: The slew of GOP lawmakers caught by local media outlets cutting ribbons at projects made possible by the law they voted against from replacing Mississippi River locks to funding a South Carolina bus line.

It’s easy to pay lip service to infrastructure. The Donald Trump administration planned an “infrastructure week” only to have it scrapped for lack of broad support or funding so often it became a running joke. And as much as the infrastructure bill was touted as bipartisan, it’s useful to remember that only 13 House Republicans voted for it. But then that’s how Congress works (or doesn’t): The thoughtless lawmaker will condemn any spending that isn’t destined for his or her district. Leadership is about pursuing the best interests of the nation — even when it means you take an awful lot of flak from those who should know better.