As part of his speech before Congress, Donald Trump said there would be one rule about his non-existent infrastructure bill.

This effort will be guided by two core principles: Buy American and hire American.

To some extent, that has to be true. Because there are already laws in place that require some materials used in state and federal infrastructure projects, particularly steel, to be U.S. made.

Those requirements, actually called "buy America" in federal law, were first put in place in the late 1970s after the collapse of the steel industry. They were gradually expanded to include almost all federal grant-funded transportation projects.

So what Trump’s proposing is that the government follow rules that are 40 years old. And as amazing as it is that he can pass that off as a great “new” idea, what’s worse is that Trump and Republicans keep playing this phrase up, even as Republicans keep voting American materials down.

Trump gave the same insistence on “American made” when he restored permissions for the Dakota Access pipeline and re-invited TransCanada to construct the Keystone XL pipeline for oil from Canadian tar sands.

When U.S. President Donald Trump signed orders to revive two controversial energy pipeline projects this week, he pledged to require new pipelines to use American-made steel, a gesture to workers in the hard-hit industry who helped propel him to power.

And how did that go? Not only did Republicans not insist on using U.S. steel in the pipelines, they voted down a Democratic effort to make the pipeline live up to the requirements Trump himself had given.