Guess who’s coming to dinner? Well, the answer depends if you are talking about short-term or long-term.

In the short run, it should be your family and close friends.

In the long run, it could be your new neighbors.

Should be, we said, family and friends in the short term.  But, the honorable Dr. Fauci weighed in on Sunday.  “It’s still not OK” to gather indoors. He cited the “level of infection” as “still really disturbingly high.”

“So, if you’re not vaccinated, please get vaccinated as soon as vaccine becomes available to you, and if you are vaccinated, please remember that you still have to be careful and not get involved in crowded situations, particularly indoors where people are not wearing masks,” he stated.

“And for the time being, until we show definitively that a person who’s vaccinated does not get this subclinical infection and can spread to others, you should also continue to wear a mask.”

Who knew?  Now the vaccinations might not work.  All of this free government advice (coercion) comes from a man who just over a year ago said wearing a mask was not necessary.

But if you can wait for the $2.5 trillion infrastructure bill, which has little to do with infrastructure, to pass you could invite your new neighbors over for some indoor mask-wearing chow time.   Neatly tucked inside of the bloated bill is a measly $20 billion designed to turn current single-family dwelling neighborhoods upside down.

You’ve heard of Section 8 housing, haven’t you?  Stated simply, if you don’t have enough income to afford a certain home or apartment for rent, the government will provide the difference based on income or lack thereof qualifications.  The new bill would take that concept into a neighborhood near you.

The infrastructure bill, also known as the American Jobs Act, would remove the zoning that exists for single-family homes across the nation and allow tear-downs of them to build multi-unit apartments next to them or to convert existing single-family homes into multi-family dwellings.  Anywhere, anytime.

What a concept it is.  The government hands out money.  Jobs are created in the construction industry.  Landlords get paid.  Renters get better housing in any neighborhood of their choosing.  Corporations get taxed at a higher rate to pay for some of this plan.    Consumers pay more for what corporations make. Debt continues its climb.  And, you get new neighbors and plenty of them.

Viola!  Easy peasy.  No wonder it’s called the American Jobs Act.

And, now you can have all of the new neighbors that you want, or don’t want, over for dinner.  Hell, throw a block party.

The fact that we don’t choose our neighbors (and now not our neighborhood either) doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be good neighbors.

Invite Dr. Fauci too.  But, insist that he wear a mask, dammit.